Rating: 
Summary: Murder Is Always on the Menu in St. Mary Mead
Review: Agatha Christie returns us to St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple's quiet village where much has changed. A new subdivision, young marrieds who buy on the installment plan, and even a supermarket have have invaded the quiet village. Only Miss Marple and her friend Miss Hartnell remain the same, still living in their same homes. Even Col. and Mrs. Bantry's lavish Gossington Hall (the scene of the crime in "The Body in the Library") has changed. After the Colonel's death, Mrs. Bantry put the house up for sale and it has now been purchased by the American film star Marina Gregg and her husband Jason Rudd. The Rudds host a grand reopening of the home to show the villagers the many changes they have made. At the party, a guest dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail. Since the coctail had actually been intended for Marina Gregg, an investigation begins as to why anyone would want to kill her. A frozen stare and facts Miss Marple gathers from movie magazines at the hairdresser's are clues that lead her to solve yet another mystery.In 1980 this novel was transferred to the big screen with Angela Lansbury in the role of Miss Marple. Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Kim Novak had the other lead roles in this excellent recreation.
Rating:
Summary: Murder Is Always on the Menu in St. Mary Mead
Review: Agatha Christie returns us to St. Mary Mead, Miss Marple's quiet village where much has changed. A new subdivision, young marrieds who buy on the installment plan, and even a supermarket have have invaded the quiet village. Only Miss Marple and her friend Miss Hartnell remain the same, still living in their same homes. Even Col. and Mrs. Bantry's lavish Gossington Hall (the scene of the crime in "The Body in the Library") has changed. After the Colonel's death, Mrs. Bantry put the house up for sale and it has now been purchased by the American film star Marina Gregg and her husband Jason Rudd. The Rudds host a grand reopening of the home to show the villagers the many changes they have made. At the party, a guest dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail. Since the coctail had actually been intended for Marina Gregg, an investigation begins as to why anyone would want to kill her. A frozen stare and facts Miss Marple gathers from movie magazines at the hairdresser's are clues that lead her to solve yet another mystery. In 1980 this novel was transferred to the big screen with Angela Lansbury in the role of Miss Marple. Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Kim Novak had the other lead roles in this excellent recreation.
Rating: 
Summary: Miss Marple is still going strong
Review: Although age has slowed her physically in this book, Miss Marple is still mentally sharp. She is curious, as are her other neighbors, when film star Marina Gregg and her husband Jason Rudd move into the neighborhood. Marina and Jason host a neighborhood party, but unfortunately Heather Badcock dies at the party after consuming a poisoned cocktail. Soon the investigators decide that the drink may have been intended for Marina because a long line of ex-husbands and betrayed wives would have a motive to kill her. Miss Marple puzzles over the possible suspects and does some interviewing until she finally decides who the culprit is. This is another one of Agatha Christie's carefully constructed novels which challenge the reader to solve the mystery before Miss Marple. Not the best of the books, but a good read nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: Miss Marple is still going strong
Review: Although age has slowed her physically in this book, Miss Marple is still mentally sharp. She is curious, as are her other neighbors, when film star Marina Gregg and her husband Jason Rudd move into the neighborhood. Marina and Jason host a neighborhood party, but unfortunately Heather Badcock dies at the party after consuming a poisoned cocktail. Soon the investigators decide that the drink may have been intended for Marina because a long line of ex-husbands and betrayed wives would have a motive to kill her. Miss Marple puzzles over the possible suspects and does some interviewing until she finally decides who the culprit is. This is another one of Agatha Christie's carefully constructed novels which challenge the reader to solve the mystery before Miss Marple. Not the best of the books, but a good read nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent example of a good detective story
Review: Having more than enough of the patronizing attentions of her live-in companion, Miss Knight, Jane Marple decides to go out for a stroll. While exploring the newest intrusion of suburban expansion called "The Development," the old spinster slips on some loose stones and takes a tumble. Heather Badcock, one of the new residents, helps Miss Marple and invites in her for a nice cup of tea to recover from the shock. There she learns that Mrs. Badcock is a big fan of film diva Marina Gregg and that therefore overjoyed to be invited to Gossington Hall in St. Mary Mead, the new residence of her idol. Big is Jane's surprise when she learns a few days later that Heather got killed during a benefit for a local hospital at Gossington Hall. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side was written in 1962 and is a great example of the ingenuity of Agatha Christie. Without the burden of numerous side stories, Agatha succeeds is drawing the setting of a murder mystery that not only quite convincing, but also extremely fair. For the experienced detective reader it is possible to catch the killer before a third of the story is told, there is even a very clear hint on the first few pages. It is just the challenge to not let Agatha change your mind before Mrs. Marple explains what at the end is so terribly obvious. Trivia: the motive of the murder is based upon a tragic accident in the life of actress Gene Tierney (I cannot explain further, because that would ruin the story). This story is clearly one of the reasons why Agatha Christie is still rightfully known as the Queen of Crime.
Rating:
Summary: A very different murder
Review: I confessed that having read most of Agatha Christie's mysteries, and a fan of other mysteries as well, I correctly predicted the true killer and victim of the murder of one Mrs Heather Badcock in The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side. In this novel, Ms Marple was many years older (30 years after her first appearance in Murder in the Vicarage). She was necessarily less physically active but her mind was as keen as ever. The title was taken from Alfred Tennyson's the Lady of Shalot:
... 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.
...
It referred to the face of actress Marina Greggs, observed shortly before Heather Badcock died from drugged wine glass which was originally meant for Marina. The setting was Ms Marple's village of St Mary Mead, the scene of the crime was Gossington Hall, the very same mansion in which a previous death was discovered many years before in the novel The Body In The Library. The Hall had passed through several hands since the Bantrys in the earlier novel. In this novel, it was just renovated by the new owners; film director Jason Rudd and his wife Marina Greggs. Marina Greggs was making a comeback after several years of recovering from a breakdown due to giving birth to a mentally deficient child. On the day of the crime, Gossington Hall was venue to a local fete and there were numerous visitors. Ms Marple herself however, did not appear at the Hall until much later. However, she was informed of the events and interviews by many other people, some like local "gossip" of Mrs Bantry her old friend and Ms Knight her companion, others more official like Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock who apparently continued to hold enormous respect for Ms Marple's insight. Readers were not always told the specific words given to Ms Marple, but they were given first hand accounts of the interviews. Several crucial clues were given in very subtle manner but they would only be meaningful to readers who did not start on the wrong premises. I was fortunate enough to bring with me the skepticism developed as a mystery fan not to take anything at face value and hence I was able to come to the conclusion pretty fast. That however did not diminish the pleasure I derived from reading the book. Another aspect which made this novel interesting was Agatha Christie introduced new types of characters, or at least characters with fresh and different portrayals. One of her maxim was either a study of the victim, or a study of the crime, or a study of the culprit, would reveal all. Readers could use 2 of the above to solve the crime for themselves.
Rating:
Summary: Jane Marple solves four murders in Gossington Hall.
Review: Miss Jane Marple is the main character in several of Dame Agatha Christie's mystery novels. She is a small, old woman who lives in the village of St. Mary's Mead, England. Her eye-sight is beginning to fail. She is very plain looking, which allows her to blend into the surrounding wherever she goes. Miss Marple has never been married. She lives with Miss Knight, her caretaker. Miss Marple's nephew, Raymond, sent Miss Knight to work for her because Miss Marple's doctor insisted that she have someone with her twenty-four hours a day. Miss Marple doesn't like her very much because Miss Knight babies her, and Miss Marple wants to take care of herself. Her uncle is Canon of Chichester Cathedral. Miss Marple is a very friendly and smart person. She enjoys knitting a lot, but because of her bad eyesight, she drops many stitches, and her doctor told her to start unraveling her knitting rather than knitting it. She is very talkative, sensible, and spunky. She is very good at solving murders, which is her job. She is a detective. She does her detecting by going to the site of the murder. She also researches the background of the suspects, reads newspaper and magazine articles about the victims, and talks to the suspects and the people who know them. All this made Miss Marple a very unusual and very popular detective. She appeared in a dozen very popular novels by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie's own life has a mystery, too. In December, 1926, she disappeared from her own home. The day after she disappeared, her car was found abandoned and the police started searching for her. They found her ten days later, staying at a hotel using an assumed name. She never told anyone where she went or what she did during those ten days. Dame Christie wrote more than seventy-five novels. She wrote about Miss Marple and about Hercule Poirot, the strange little Belgian detective. She also wrote plays. Her most famous, "The Mousetrap," ran non-stop in London for twenty-one years. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. She died in 1976.
Rating:
Summary: Controlling Women
Review: Miss Marple is in her element at St. Mary Mead amidst the church, the vicarage and the Blue Boar. The many people who make up her old familiar network are also there to help her indulge her passion for sleuthing. The most important lessons from this mystery concern controlling women and their enablers. Miss Marple knows how they work and she tells us all about the havoc they bring into the world.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile
Review: One of Miss Marple's best stories - takes place in the same location as, and years later than, The Body in the Library. Probably contains one of Aggie's most striking twist endings, maybe because it's so tragically heartbreaking. As usual in a Christie book, the characters are well defined, the plot nicely structured and the writing: swift and descriptive. The beginning especially is well-drawn as Marple reflects on the modern world slowly creeping up on her quiet but eventful St Mary Meade. Overall: an excellent doozie you can read in one or two days.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: The book is not that good if you compare it to her other works. Okay, so the ending did surprise me but it was quite a slow book..If you are a Christie fan like me, you'd still go ahead and buy the book!
| 
