A review by lesserjoke
They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie

3.0

In this novel, also published under the title Murder with Mirrors, the elderly Miss Jane Marple goes to visit a childhood friend whose sister reports feeling vaguely worried about her situation, in part because the woman's latest husband has turned their estate into a reformatory school for criminal and/or mentally ill young men. While there the amateur detective meets a standard cast of Agatha Christie suspects, and eventually one of them strikes, killing another guest. That murder scene is an interesting one that remixes a few of the author's earlier plots -- the lights have blown out, there's a loud argument at gunpoint that distracts everyone, and later someone else is found shot to death in a separate wing of the house -- but it comes a bit late at 38% through the short text, leaving less room for actual investigation of the crime(s) and not much propulsion in the story beforehand. I do like getting to hear a bit about the heroine's younger days, and I'd say overall that this is a decent mystery with plenty of red herrings and a not-implausible solution, but it doesn't ever feel quite as clever or memorable as it could.

[Content warning for ableism and racism including slurs.]

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