Aconjuring trick has a fascination all its own, a magic that survives from childhood days, when one saw with open-eyed awe one's first rabbit emerging from a top hat. The basic principle of the magician's art is, of course, to rivet the attention of the audience on detail so as to distract attention from the essential; to create the illusion of doing one thing while actually employed with something else. In her new novel "They Do It With Mirrors" Agatha Christie successfully demonstrates how a clever criminal can employ such tactics to get away with murder. Miss Marple, that deceptively meek-and-mild spinster lady, is staying with her old school friend, Carrie Louise Serrocold, at Stonygates, a country house turned into a college for juvenile delinquents. The college is run by her husband Lewis Serrocold, an energetic idealist with a passion for reforming young criminals. When Christian Gulbrandsen, Carrie Louise's stepson, comes to see Lewis Serrocold and is shot dead soon after his arrival, it seems impossible that anyone in the household could have had the opportunity to commit the crime. Yet it is only one amongst them who could have any plausible motive. In a succession of dramatic situations the clear-thinking, far-seeing Miss Marple penetrates an artfully contrived smokescreen and exposes a totally unexpected murderer.
Aconjuring trick has a fascination all its own, a magic that survives from childhood days, when one saw with open-eyed awe one's first rabbit emerging from a top hat. The basic…
