carosbookcase 's review for:

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

5.0

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Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
‘The curse is come upon me,’ cried
The Lady of Shalott
— The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Tennyson

This was a fun read with a wide array of characters set in a manor house, the surrounding village of St. Mary Mead, and the new development of houses that has recently risen from the countryside, which everyone in the books refers to as simply, “the Development”. 

A resident of the Development, Heather Babcock, couldn’t have been more excited to meet the glamorous movie star Mariana Gregg. One moment Heather is enthusiastically talking to the movie star, and the next Heather is dead. And it looks like a poisoned cocktail is to blame. But who would want to kill a nice woman like Heather? 

Miss Marple takes a less active roll in this one, but, of course, she still manages to unravel the case, as well as her knitting!

I had a great time with this book, despite the fact that the title feels a bit… Well, random. The death in this book has nothing to do with a mirror. The title comes from the above passage in ‘The Lady of Shalott’, a poem by Alfred Tennyson. 

Even as an English major who is familiar with this poem I thought it was an odd choice of title. Would most people who read this book when it was first published in 1962 be familiar with the poem? Or would they spot Christie’s latest on the shelves of their local bookstore or newsstand and think, “Death by cracked mirror, eh? What will she think up next. The Queen of Crime be running out of ways to do away with people,” and put it back on the shelf with a harrumph.

I should say, the above quote opens the books and the reference is later explained within the book, so it’s not as though you need to do additional research to understand the title within the context of the book. 

I think titles are more effective when they are simpler, but that’s just my personal preference.