If you are a fan of crime mysteries and have read the famous ones, then from the title itself you would have guessed which author and which book I am talking about.
“They do it with mirrors”, an Agatha Christie novel, featuring the good old, Miss Jane Marple.
It was, as always, a thrilling experience to unfold the mystery. Don’t know why but I always had imagined, rather I always wanted Miss Marple to be cute and chubby little old woman (resembling to my grandma) and she always had been thin and delicate looking woman, with an enormous power to draw parallels and reach conclusions. Simply amazing.
Being a mystery novel, I won’t be talking about the story line at all. While reading a mystery novel, don’t we also end up putting the detective’s hat? I surely do. So even a slightest hint, will spoil all the fun.
Of course, there are lot of points to note, in general, whenever you are a spectator to drama happening in front of you.
- Human nature is same, irrespective of wherever they are, a hustling city or a peaceful village. In fact, in an apparently peaceful village, there is a lot to observe, learn and analyse the human behaviour.
- Looks, words and even the title (of the book) can deceive you or let you create a bias that interferes with your ability to analyse objectively. In the case of this book, I had cooked up in mind there would be a “physical” role of mirror in the crime. And I was so damn wrong. Had I not presumed it’s got to do with the mirror, probably I would have also cracked the crime correctly (you never know!!)
- You have to read between the lines and look past the behaviour
- Trust your intuition
The storyline does cover old friends catching up, and Miss Marple is one of those. When I finished reading the book, I imagined how would our, me and my friends, catch up be? Four old ladies, bespectacled, toothless (probably) and all grey hair. Would we also have some crime to crack? Some patterns to analyse?? How I wish!!
It’s a must read for all crime mystery lovers.
Simply me 