They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

 

Title:  They Do It With Mirrors

Author:  Agatha Christie

Narrated by:  Emilia Fox

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 6 hours and 35 minutes

Source: Checked out with Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

Do you pick books to read based on the title? 

They Do It With Mirrors is the June pick for #ReadChristie2023 to meet a theme of “gunshot.”  I thought it was interesting on the website for the challenge it said that Agatha Christie was less confident of her knowledge of death by gunshot as compared to death by poison. Guns were still prominent in her works with 42 deaths caused by them throughout her works. 

I started They Do It With Mirrors in June but didn’t finish it until July.  This title grabbed me.  What exactly do they do with mirrors?  I was hoping that mirrors played prominently into the answer to the murder, but unfortunately it is just a phrase that Miss Marple says to explain the solution.  I was pleased that unlike a couple of other Miss Marple mysteries I have read, Miss Marple is in this entire novel and is the primary detective on the case.

Miss Marple is visited by an old school friend, Ruth.  Ruth is convinced that there is something wrong with her sister Carrie and hopes that Miss Marple can visit and investigate the problem.  Carrie was also Miss Marple’s friend in school.  Together with her husband, she has transformed her home, Stoneygate, into a rehabilitation center for delinquents.  There are also a number of family members visiting as well.  After a murder takes place, Miss Marple uses her skills to solve the mystery.  Was it one of the delinquent young men or a family member?

I love that Miss Marple is a nosey old lady and she is fine with that.  She strikes up conversations with everyone but is also not afraid to pull out her binoculars and pretend to look at birds so she can listen to other people’s conversations.  I was not quite sure how this one was going to end, but it was a satisfying conclusion.

Emilia Fox was a wonderful narrator of the audiobook, and I greatly enjoyed her narration.