They Do It With Mirrors (Miss Marple, #6) in Appointment With Agatha

Nov 14, 2022 Sandi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense, audiobooks-2022

Loved the narration by Emilia Fox. This is such a great story that moves at a good clip and keeps you guessing. Christie's characters seem to border on the extreme which makes it always entertaining to read her books. I thought Carrie Louise was a bit sappy, Gina incredibly self-centered, Mildred an old fussbudget who made herself odious to everyone, and Walter was a hoot. . . and of course Miss Marple -- sharp as at tack with a brilliant mind. It was quite a clever ending. ...more

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Apr 27, 2019 Jemima Raven rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-murder-mystery, genre-period-murder-mystery, genre-mystery, genre-history, type-fiction, book-club-reads-2019, type-series, book-club-detectives-2019-2022, book-club-mission-marple-2019, format-audible

A well executed plot with an interesting motif. A dramatis personnae with great potential to grip and interest the reader. Miss Marple is sweet and fluffy and about as safe as a striking cobra to confide in. She was truly the ineffectual seeming, little old lady with a steel trap mind. A logical and satisfying conclusion to a seemingly complex and murky mystery. Why then three stars only?

First I had a big eye-roll issue with the motive for murder, finally revealed at the end of the book (don't w A well executed plot with an interesting motif. A dramatis personnae with great potential to grip and interest the reader. Miss Marple is sweet and fluffy and about as safe as a striking cobra to confide in. She was truly the ineffectual seeming, little old lady with a steel trap mind. A logical and satisfying conclusion to a seemingly complex and murky mystery. Why then three stars only?

First I had a big eye-roll issue with the motive for murder, finally revealed at the end of the book (don't worry, I'm not going to reveal it), which I felt was unnecessarily complex and completely unbelievable. Also not cogent with my understanding of the personality of the character concerned, on my reading of the book...and I have read it several times before. Its almost like the Dame thought 'I can't give my audience another hackneyed motive for murder like the ones I have used before. This one will come right out of left centre for them, beautifully unbelievable and embellished. None of them will guess it this time'. Well, the Dame is right...I don't believe anyone will guess the murder motive correctly - if I'm wrong please tell me where I went wrong and what I missed. To me it feels as though another play's final act was accidentally substituted for the correct finale by the actors, just before the final curtain fell. Oops! Too late!

At the end of the day a number of the major characters seemed way too two dimensional and it was hard to feel sympathy for any of them in the way I do while reading what I consider the best of Agatha Christie's novels. I would have liked a little longer with each of the suspects to properly understand why Miss Marple responded to each one as she did and why Carrie Louise was so fond of each of them all. It was obvious that she had a talent for finding the best in every person she met, along with a rare talent for retaining a grip on rational expectations for their portrayal of individual flaws. Certainly, her character was my favorite out of all the cast in this little drama.
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May 05, 2020 Priyanka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was brilliantly written and it was just a joyful experience til the end. I figured out the culprit at the very start of the novel and I was quite please with my deduction.

Again, it was just delightful to visit Miss Marple again.

Reading stats: 60 pages/hour 300 wpm 3 hours and 10 mins

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