Far more than any of the other amateurs Christie offered over the years, Jane Marple’s ruthless cunning can ultimately unravel any thread of mystery.

Miss Marple’s hawk-eyed, gossipy personality is – of course – perfect for an amateur detective. The strange setting – a country house doubling as an institution for troubled youths – is not very well realised, but the perennial upper-crust characters shine through in what is (intentionally or otherwise) a light examination of changing social mores. 'They Do It With Mirrors' is not a Marple highlight, but it’s an easy read. Not surprisingly, reading the book shows that – as with many stories that venture outside characters she was familiar with – things begin to fall apart. Watching the Joan Hickson adaptation of 'They Do It With Mirrors', I was struck by how many of the notable elements – the number of underage characters, the theatrical menace – struck me as rather un-Christie.

Read moreĪt a delinquents’ home, Jane Marple investigates an unknown threat, at the behest of an old friend. “They do it with mirrors.” Of course, there are also the village parallels that make Miss Marple such a discerning judge of character.

Miss Marple uses excellent deductive reasoning in figuring out what must have happened. But which one? The spoiled granddaughter, her sullen American husband, the daughter with a chip on her shoulder, one of the stepsons from the second marriage, or one of the many troubled inmates?I have a soft spot for this book since it was the first of Agatha Christie’s novels I read many years ago. One member of the household must have viewed the goings-on in the locked room as a distraction to cover the murder. The murder occurred while the household feared another was taking place in a locked room. Miss Marple’s presence isn’t enough to avert the murder of Carrie Louise’s stepson from her first marriage. Miss Marple agrees to accept an invitation to stay with Carrie Louise should she offer an invitation, and she soon finds herself ensconced at Stonygates, the estate where Carrie Louise and her third husband rehabilitate juvenile delinquents. At a reunion with a friend from her youth, Jane Marple learns that her friend is very worried about her sister, Carrie Louise, whom Miss Marple hasn’t seen in decades.

Do it with mirrors