# The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
**The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side** is a detective novel by [Agatha Christie](https://www.edgepedia.org/agatha-christie) featuring [Miss Marple](https://www.edgepedia.org/miss-marple), first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in 1962 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1963.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) • [2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/agatha-christie/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side/) The American edition appeared on September 23, 1963 and ran to 269 pages.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/agatha-christie/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side/) The title comes from [Alfred, Lord Tennyson](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-lord-tennyson)'s poem *The Lady of Shalott*.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author / detective | Agatha Christie; Miss Marple novel[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) |
| First publication | Collins Crime Club, UK, 1962; Dodd, Mead, US, September 23, 1963[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) • [2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/agatha-christie/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side/) |
| Setting | St Mary Mead; the final Miss Marple mystery fully set in the village[3](https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/intertextuality-and-characterisation-in-the-mirror-crackd/) |
| Title source | Tennyson's poem *The Lady of Shalott*[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) |
| Real-life inspiration | Christie's reflections on a mother's feelings for a child born with disabilities, influenced by the tragedy of actress Gene Tierney[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) |
| Best-known adaptation | 1980 film *The Mirror Crack'd*, starring Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, and Geraldine Chaplin[4](https://www.agathachristie.com/en/film-and-tv/the-mirror-crackd-1980) |
## Plot
Once her husband had died, Dolly Bantry put Gossington Hall on the market, and the buyers were Marina Gregg, a retired film star, together with her spouse. When the couple throw a benefit party for the local hospital, the grounds fill with curious visitors, and for one of them the day ends in tragedy.[5](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side-9781408484883) As Marina serves cocktails, she is cornered by the excitable Heather Babcock, who chatters about a meeting with Marina roughly eleven years earlier, then spills her daiquiri over herself and her host. Marina offers her own untouched drink, and Heather dies in front of her.[5](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side-9781408484883)
The publisher's synopsis frames the central question: could Marina Gregg herself have been the intended victim? If so, Miss Marple's task is a hard one, because the film star had an unusually large number of enemies.[5](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side-9781408484883) [Christie's](https://www.edgepedia.org/christies) own page describes the setup in similar terms: one minute Heather Badcock had been talking to her movie idol, the next she suffered a massive seizure, and Marina's frozen expression suggested she had witnessed something horrific. While others search for material evidence, Jane Marple conducts a different investigation, into human nature.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side)
## Setting and themes
The novel is the last of Christie's classic English village mysteries, and St Mary Mead is no longer what it once was. In the 1960s a widowed Dolly Bantry, first met in *The Body in the Library*, is forced to sell Gossington Hall, which a rich movie star buys, bringing glamour and torment into a developing community.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) Christie had long been interested in the new 'developed' housing estates around her home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, and used the novel to explore them.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side)
In a peer-reviewed study, Clara Neary and Simon Statham, both of [Queen's University Belfast](https://www.edgepedia.org/queens-university-belfast), characterize the novel as the last Miss Marple mystery to be set entirely in St Mary Mead, a village that serves as a miniature version of society across the series, and observe that Christie's writing presents prominent female characters at a time when women's roles in society were shifting.[3](https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/intertextuality-and-characterisation-in-the-mirror-crackd/) The same study observes that the Tennyson reference creates a web of intertextuality running through the novel and its adaptations, and that Christie's portrayal of the triple murderer Marina Gregg elicits reader empathy rather than condemnation.[3](https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/intertextuality-and-characterisation-in-the-mirror-crackd/)
## Origins
Christie's estate states that the plot was inspired by her reflections on a mother's feelings for a child born with disabilities, and that she was influenced by the real-life tragedy of the American actress [Gene Tierney](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-tierney).[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) The critic Robert Barnard called the book "The last of the true English village mysteries in Christie's output, and one of the best of her later books."[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) *Time* magazine, listing notable Marple selections, includes the novel alongside *The Body in the Library* (1942).[6](https://time.com/4029315/agatha-christie-best-novels/)
## Adaptations
**Film.** In 1980 Hollywood adapted the novel as *The Mirror Crack'd*, with [Angela Lansbury](https://www.edgepedia.org/angela-lansbury) as Miss Marple and [Elizabeth Taylor](https://www.edgepedia.org/elizabeth-taylor) as Marina Gregg, alongside [Rock Hudson](https://www.edgepedia.org/rock-hudson), Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, Geraldine Chaplin, and Edward Fox.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) • [4](https://www.agathachristie.com/en/film-and-tv/the-mirror-crackd-1980) The film was directed by Guy Hamilton.[7](https://www.wordandfilm.com/adaptation/the-mirror-crack-d-1980/) Pierce Brosnan made his film debut in a minor role, and it was Elizabeth Taylor's last leading role in a feature film.[4](https://www.agathachristie.com/en/film-and-tv/the-mirror-crackd-1980) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 68% Tomatometer from 22 reviews and a 45% audience score from over 1,000 ratings.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mirror_crackd)
**Television and radio.** In 1992 the novel was the last Miss Marple book adapted by the BBC, with [Joan Hickson](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-hickson) in the title role.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) A further television adaptation followed in 2009 with [Julia McKenzie](https://www.edgepedia.org/julia-mckenzie) as Miss Marple, Joanna Lumley reprising Dolly Bantry, and [Lindsay Duncan](https://www.edgepedia.org/lindsay-duncan) as Marina Gregg. June Whitfield starred in BBC Radio 4's dramatization, broadcast in August 1998.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side)
**International versions.** The film director and screenwriter [Rituparno Ghosh](https://www.edgepedia.org/rituparno-ghosh) created a Bengali-language version, *Subho Mahurat* (2003), resetting the story in the film industry of Kolkata.[1](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side) Nippon TV broadcast a Japanese television movie, 大女優殺人事件 (*Daijoyuu Satsujin Jiken*, The Great Actress Murder Case), on January 9, 2007.[9](https://agathachristie.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mirror_Crack%27d_from_Side_to_Side)
## References
1. [The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Agatha Christie Limited](https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side)
2. [The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Kirkus Reviews](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/agatha-christie/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side/)
3. [Neary, Clara, and Statham, Simon. Intertextuality and characterisation in The Mirror Crack'd. Building narratives on screen, Routledge, 2026, pp. 63-81](https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/intertextuality-and-characterisation-in-the-mirror-crackd/)
4. [The Mirror Crack'd - 1980, Agatha Christie Limited](https://www.agathachristie.com/en/film-and-tv/the-mirror-crackd-1980)
5. [The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, Penguin Books Australia](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-mirror-crackd-from-side-to-side-9781408484883)
6. [5 Must-Read Agatha Christie Novels, Time](https://time.com/4029315/agatha-christie-best-novels/)
7. [The Mirror Crack'd (1980) - Which Book Is It Based On?, Word & Film](https://www.wordandfilm.com/adaptation/the-mirror-crack-d-1980/)
8. [The Mirror Crack'd, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mirror_crackd)
9. [The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Agatha Christie Wiki](https://agathachristie.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mirror_Crack%27d_from_Side_to_Side)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Prose fiction › Standalone novels › Crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense standalone novels › Classic detective and whodunit novels*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license