The mirror cracked from one side to the other

Original language: English

Original title: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

Year of publication: 1956

Translation: María Dolores Raich de Ullán

Valuation: recommendable

Like many millions of other people (I know I’m not special), during my adolescence I was a voracious reader of Agatha Christie’s novels and surely I owe much of the persistence to her. vice hobby that has brought me here, to write reviews of what I read, with more enthusiasm than success… I also confess that of all his novels, the ones I liked the most were the ones starring Miss Marple (Poirot seemed like a so fatuous…although I suppose that was the intention, but in addition, Miss Jane Marple, although she was an old woman, seemed to me to be a more modern and innovative model of a detective), that kind little old lady who solved crimes while she was there. He had tea at his house in St. Mary’s Mead… what a small town, by the way, where the murder rate per inhabitant must have been higher than a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

In any case, in this book, set in the 50s of the last century, some changes have occurred in St. Mary’s Mead; It is no longer that small, typically English hamlet, closed in on itself, as new inhabitants have arrived who break the social status quo, worrying the usual neighbors (what does this sound like to me?): young couples from the city They have gone to live in the new neighborhood of Ensanche, where the kids look like hooligans… Anyway, the 20th century has arrived in the world of cups, so to speak. As if that were not enough, the Gossington Hall mansion has been acquired by a Hollywood star, although of British origin, the actress Marina Gregg with her husband, the American producer Jason Rudd. This contribution of glamor (it is not difficult to think that it is a transcript of Elizabeth Taylor, who in turn was the one who played the character when the novel was made into a film) is more liked by the residents of St. Mary’s Mead, of course. , until it turns out that one of them, Mrs. Badcock, dies of poisoning during the reception that the new owners offer at the mansion. Although, according to all the evidence, the target of the murderer was not this good lady, but Marina Gregg herself…

The mystery is served. And Miss Marple will end up solving it from her little house, informed by the gossip told by her visitors and her young assistant Cherry. With her deductive skills and, above all, with her knowledge of human nature, she will avoid false clues and incredible coincidences (8ay, Mrs. Agatha…) until she finds the terrible truth, as she could not be otherwise. Also, I must not forget, with the invaluable help of Alfred Tennyson, whose verses fly over the entire novel:

“The spider web flew and floated away

The mirror cracked from one side to the other;

“The curse has fallen on me,” he exclaimed.

The Lady of Shalott”

(Once again, I can’t resist putting one of the magnificent covers from the Molino publishing house for this author’s books)

More Doña Agatha novels reviewed: here