They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

There are a number of points that struck me as interesting as I read the book, not essential to the plot, but maybe revealing Agatha Christie’s opinions and her views of post-war society. Illusions created for a definite purpose – in the same way that conjurers create illusions to deceive an audience. … all the things that seemed to be true were only illusions.

Miss Marple, however, was not deceived and had sorted out the reality from the illusion and seen through the misdirection. The layout of the house is of importance and there is a plan showing how the rooms are connected, but even so I was still in the dark. I hadn’t worked out who the murderer is and had even ruled out the person in question quite early on in the book. So Ruth’s fears materialise when Christian is found shot dead and it seems that someone is trying to poison Carrie Louise.Īs I expected from the title not everything is as it appears. But it is not Lewis or Edgar who is killed, but one of the trustees of the home, Christian Gulbrandsen, the brother of Carrie Louise’s first husband who was alone in his study. He loses control and Lewis takes him into his office, but their raised voices are heard by the others, culminating in the sound of gunshots. And, really you know, nobody can do that but yourself.’Īll is not well with the boys either – one of them, Edgar Lawson is suffering from delusions, saying his father is Churchill and then that he is Montgomery.

‘crank’, a ‘man with ideals’, ‘bitten by the bug of wanting to improve everybody’s lives for them. Lewis Serrocold is Carrie’s third husband, described by Ruth as a Miss Marple finds an unhappy household, including Mildred, Carrie Louise’s widowed daughter, Stephen and Alex, her stepsons, and Gina, her adopted daughter’s daughter, married to an American, Wally Hudd. She can’t put her finger on what is wrong, she just felt the atmosphere wasn’t right, whether it was the boys’ home – ‘ those dreadful young delinquents‘ or something else and she asks Miss Marple to visit Carrie Louise to see if her fears are justified. Ruth is worried about Carrie Louise, who is now living in a country house in the south of England with her husband, Lewis Serrocold, which he has turned into a home for delinquent boys. Miss Marple has known her and her sister, Carrie Louise since they had been together at a pensionnat in Florence. It begins with Miss Marple reminiscing with an old friend, Mrs Ruth Van Rydock, an American. I don’t think it’s one of her best, but I did like it. I’m slowly reading my way through Agatha Christie’s books, not in chronological order, but just as I come across them and this month I’ve read They Do It With Mirrors which was first published in 1952.

They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie