by John Curran
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They Do It with Mirrors was serialised six months before book publication in both the UK and the USA and was Christie’s second title of 1952, following a few months after Mrs McGinty’s Dead. Leaving aside the unlikely background – a reform home – for Miss Marple, the conjuring trick at the heart of the plot is clever; although even the mention of a conjuring trick risks giving the game away immediately. The subsequent killings are, like similar deaths in later novels of the 1950s – 4.50 from Paddington, Ordeal by Innocence – unconvincing and read suspiciously like padding. The principle behind the misdirection involving Carrie Louise’s innocent tonic is similar in type to the misdirection in After the Funeral, the following year, concerning the death of Richard Abernethie. Having successfully deceived her readers for over 30 years, Agatha Christie could still devise new and infuriatingly simple tricks. And her presentation of clues remained as devious and daring as ever. Read the description of Lewis Serrocold opening the door of the locked study after the quarrel – and marvel anew.
Most of the notes, almost 30 pages, for They Do It with Mirrors are contained in Notebook 17, with brief references to the main plot device in another seven. The central idea behind this plot, the fake quarrel, was one that Christie nursed for a long time before finally incorporating it into a book. She considered numerous variations and various settings and the plotting was entangled, at different times, with both Taken at the Flood and A Pocket Full of Rye. As can be seen, that attraction went back over many years and oddly, it would seem that it was the title, or at least a reference to ‘mirrors’, that attracted her:
Jan 1935
A and B alibi A has attempted to murder B – really they both murdered C
Ideas for G.K.C.
Alibi by attempted murder. A tries murder B and fails (Really A and B murder C or C and D)
They do it with Mirrors
Combine with Third Floor Flat – fortune telling woman dead, discovered by getting into wrong flat
Plans Nov. 1948 Cont.
Mirrors
Approach – Miss M. on jury – NAAFI girl37 – Japp or equal unhappy about case – goes to Poirot. The fight between two men – (maisonette) – one clatters down – goes up again in service lift and through door – shouts for help – badly wounded – thereby they prove an alibi
Mirrors
Basic necessity – two enemies who give each other alibi. Brothers – Cain and Abel
A split B’s head open once – A bad tempered cheerful ne’er do well; B Cautious stay at home
Mirrors
The antagonism between two people providing the alibi for one. Sound of quarrel overheard – struggle and chairs – finally he comes out – calls for doctor
Mirrors
The trick – P and L fake quarrel – overheard below (actually P. does it above) L. returns and stuns him – calls for help
The ‘fake quarrel’ trick extends back as far as Christie’s first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where Alfred Inglethorp and Evelyn Howard feign an argument in order to allay suspicion. Death on the Nile and Endless Night also feature this deception. In They Do It with Mirrors the trick depends, like that of a conjuror, on the misdirection of an audience’s attention while the murder is actually committed elsewhere. As can be seen in the first example above, this brief note may well have inspired Death on the Nile as it preceded that novel by two years; and the ‘G.K.C.’ note was for a 1935 anthology A Century of Detective Stories, edited by G.K. Chesterton. The reference to ‘Third Floor Flat’ is to the 1929 Poirot short story of the same name; its possible combination with the ‘mirrors’ idea is echoed again in the example following, with the mention of the service lift. This dated extract is from Notebook 14, directly after the main notes for 1949’s Crooked House. The ‘Cain and Abel’ note is from the early 1950s; it appears a few pages before the rough notes for the adaptation of The Hollow as a play. The final example shows the connection with A Pocket Full of Rye, as the initials refer to Percival and Lancelot from that novel.
Notebook 63 confirms that Christie considered the title a promising one and shows an elaboration of the idea as she experiments with various combinations of male/female and A/B. The reference to 1941’s Evil under the Sun shows that this version postdates 1937’s Death on the Nile.
They Do it with Mirrors (Good title?)
Combine with AB alibi idea – A and B, apparently on bad terms, quarrel
(a) Man and Woman (?) Jealousy? He pays attention to someone else? or she does? or married couple? (too like Evil under Sun)
(b) Two men or two women quarrelled about a man (or woman) according to sex
Result – clever timing – B phones police or is heard by people in flat or being attacked by A (A is really killing C at that moment!). C’s death must be synchronised beyond any possible doubt.
A stabbed by B – then B goes off to kill X – A does double act of quarrel – ending with great shout – ‘he’s stabbed me.’
A has alibi (given by the attacked B) – B has alibi (given by injury and A’s confession) – [therefore] suspicion is narrowed to D E or F
Then she tries out completely different plots, while retaining the promising title. The first one has echoes – sisters masquerading as ‘woman and maid’ – of the Miss Marple story, ‘The Case of the Perfect Maid’, first published in 1942, and the second is somewhat similar to the Poirot case Mrs McGinty’s Dead. The third is a resumé of ‘Triangle at Rhodes’, with the addition of a quarrel and the substitution of Miss Marple for Poirot; and the final one is an original, and confusing, undeveloped scenario:
They do it with Mirrors
Idea?
Adv[ertisement] for identical twins. Really put in by twins – crooks who are not identical. Woman and maid (really sisters). The maid gives alibi etc. and talks for the first one
Mirrors
Starting Inspector (?) The Moving Finger or one of the others. Calls on Miss M – retiring – his last case – doesn’t like it – puts it to her – evidence to the P[ublic] P[rosecutor] overwhelming but he isn’t satisfied
Could Mirrors be triangle idea
Valerie – rich, immoral, man mad
Michael Peter – Air ace – married to her
Marjorie – brown mouse
Douglas – her husband – rather anxious – keen on Valerie
Miss Marple
V[alerie] poisoned – it was meant for P[eter]. Could there be quarrel overheard – M and D really M and P (pretending to be D)
Mirrors
Randal and Nicholas Harvey Derek – brothers – violent quarrel – over woman? N marries Gwynneth. Old lady killed by H and R during time when R is attacking H or by R and G
In Notebook 17 Christie arrives at the plan that she eventually adopted for the novel. She drafts the set-up twice in three pages and then proceeds to a list of characters which is remarkably close to that of the finished work:
Mrs. Gordon, old friend of Miss Marple at Ritz – asks her to come. Same age but Mrs. Gordon all dolled up etc. – vague curious woman. Worried about Loulou – married that man – all efficiency and eye glasses. Fuss over young man who attacked him – said he was his father – had previously said to several people that Churchill was his father.
Mirrors
Miss M summoned by rich friend (at school together in Italy? France?). 2 sisters – both married a good deal Mrs. B and Mrs. E. Former vague but shrewd – knows how to manage men – with Louie, Mrs. E. men know how to manage her. She is committed to this cultural scheme – by first husband. 2nd selfish artist. She has various children by first husband; by second – selfish pansy young man [and] by third. E. is hard headed character, accountant. A big trust (by D) – E. is one of principal trustees – others being old lawyer – old Cabinet Minister – later dead lawyer replaced by son – C[abinet] M[inister] replaced by Dr’s son, young man – has come to college – taken and accepted by E.
People in Mirrors
Carrie L
ouise – friend of Gulbrandsen
Lewis Serrocold
Emma Westingham [Mildred Strete] – daughter – plain – married Canon W. now a widow come home)
Gina – daughter of Gulbrandsen’s adopted daughter, Joy, who married unsatisfactory Italian Count, name of San Severiano – daughter back to Gulbrandsen
Walter – her young American husband – good war record – but obscure origin
Edgar – a psychiatric ‘case’ young research worker? Or secretary? a bastard and a little insane
Dr. Maverick – Resident physician under Sir Willoughby Goddard leading psychiatrist
Jeremy Faber [Stephen Restarick] – Stepson of Carrie Louise by second husband ‘bad Larry Faber’, a scenic designer in love with Gina
‘Jolly’ Bellamy [Bellever] – a Carlo [Carlo Fisher, Christie’s devoted secretary and friend], devoted to Carrie Louise – or is she?
Christian Gulbrandsen
The arrival of Miss Marple and her introduction to the inhabitants of Stonygates is sketched in Notebook 17:
Miss M arrives – met at station by Edgar – introduces himself – his statement – Winston [Churchill] is his father – C[arrie] L[ouise] – charming greeting. They see Gina out of window – with handsome dark man. ‘What a handsome couple’ says Miss M – C-L looks disturbed – not her husband – Mike – gives acting classes to boys – gets up plays etc.
Telegram from Christian
Mike or Wally to Miss M about Edgar being Montgomery’s son. Talk about Edgar – illegitimate of course – served a short prison sentence
Earlier in the same Notebook, and while Lance and Percival were still possible characters in They Do It with Mirrors, she sketched the following scenes, remarkable for their similarity to the all-important scene in the published version:
Procedure
P. asks Renee to come into room – study – they start quarrelling – not married etc. Conversation continues – her voice high and clear, he goes out by window, kills father and comes back. She stabs him – shoots him etc.
Or
Same with two brothers – violent quarrel. P’s voice heard first, then L’s – L’s continues – then P. knocked out. ‘Oh God, I think I’ve killed him’
In Notebook 43 Christie outlines the events of Chapter 7 iii with only minor differences – in the published version Dr Maverick leaves before the quarrel and returns after the shooting; and it is Miss Bellever who discovers the body.
After dinner, Gulbrandsen goes to his room – ‘I have some typing to do.’ Lewis takes medicine away from Louise – powder – calc. Aspirin – for arthritis – moment of strain. Tel[ephone] – Jolly goes – ‘Alexis has arrived at station – can we send a car.’ Lewis goes to his room – Edgar comes through window – ‘My father’ – makes scene. Goes into Lewis’s room – shuts door behind him, locks it – voices raised. Ought to break down door – Carrie Louise very calm ‘Oh, no dear, Edgar would never harm Lewis.’
Maverick says very important not to apply force – Maverick goes. Jolly rather violent about it – leaves hall. Then – ‘You didn’t know I had a revolver’ – presently sound of shot – somebody screams – no, not here – it’s outside – far away. Edgar shouting – things falling over. Then, shot inside room – Edgar calling out – ‘I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean to.’
‘Open this door’ – Edgar unbolts it – Lewis shot not shot – missed, two holes in parapet. Then Edgar breaks down. Lewis asks Stephen to fetch Gulbrandsen or ask him for some figures. They go – Gulbrandsen shot. Then Alexis walks in.
A page of Notebook 43 is headed with a straightforward question. The possibilities are then considered, with those characters ostensibly in the clear and those still under suspicion listed separately. But as we – and the police – discover, things are not always as they seem:
Who could have shot Christian Gulbrandsen
Miss Bellever
Alexis
Gina
Stephen
Clear Gina and Stephen – off
Lewis
Edgar
Dr. Maverick
Carrie Louise
Miss Marple
And the clue of the typewriter letter is drafted later on the same page:
Bottom bit left in typewriter – or just left
Dear David
You are my oldest friend. Beg you will come here to advise us on a very grave situation that has arisen. The person to be considered and shielded is father’s wife Carrie-Louise. Briefly I have reason to believe . . .
As usual, Christie sketched ideas that never went further than the Notebook, and the following page had a few interesting ones. In the extract below, E is Lewis Serrocold of the novel; none of this sketch is used, apart from the clever adaptation of the well-known phrase, ‘Abandon hope all ye that enter here.’ Note also the possibility of using Abney (see After the Funeral) as a setting.:
Scene Abney
E’s a fanatic about delinquent children – they take them
‘Recover hope all ye that enter here’ [Chapter 5]
Secret training school for thieves and embezzlers. Director E. – under David clever master with forged credentials
C. Gulbrandsen finds out about it and goes to police – then says he made a mistake. Then shot. Police suggest young man Walters – a bit balmy – someone tells him E is his father – incites him to attack him – so as to help as cover – they do it with mirrors
After the Funeral
18 May 1953
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At the family reunion following the funeral of Richard Abernethie, Cora Lansquenet makes an unguarded remark about his death – ‘But he was murdered, wasn’t he?’ When she is savagely murdered the following day it would seem that her suspicions were justified.
* * *
After the Funeral appeared in the USA, as Funerals Are Fatal, two months before its UK publication and in both countries book publication was preceded by an earlier serialisation. After the Funeral is typical Christie territory – an extended family in a large country house, and the death of a wealthy patriarch with impecunious relatives waiting for the reading of the will. That family is also her most complicated, resulting in the inclusion of a family tree.
The book’s dedication reads ‘For James in memory of happy days at Abney.’ ‘James’ was Christie’s brother-in-law James Watts, the husband of her sister Madge. They lived in Abney, a vast Victorian house built in the Gothic style, exactly as Enderby Hall is described on the first page of the novel. It was to Abney that Christie retired in 1926 to recover from the trauma of her disappearance. The house is also mentioned in the Author’s Foreword to The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding: ‘Abney Hall had everything! The garden boasted a waterfall, a stream and a tunnel under the drive!’ In Chapter 23 of After the Funeral Rosamund has a conversation with Poirot seated by such a waterfall in the garden.
There is a reference to Lord Edgware Dies in Chapter 12, and the same chapter also contains two (coincidental) references, in the space of four pages, to a Destination Unknown (the following year’s book). The distinctiveness and recognisability of backs is discussed in Chapter 16 and this would also feature in 4.50 from Paddington. And the attempted murder of Helen Abernethie, overheard down a phone line, in Chapter 20 has distinct similarities to the actual murder of Donald Ross 20 years earlier in Lord Edgware Dies, and to that of Patricia Lane in Hickory Dickory Dock, two years later.
The death of Cora is one of Christie’s most brutal and bloody murders, rivalling those of Simeon Lee in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and Miss Sainsbury Seale in One, Two, Buckle my Shoe. But, unlike the murders in these novels, the reason for the savagery of the killing in After the Funeral is not justified by the plot and it is difficult to understand why this method was adopted by the killer or, indeed, by Christie. There is never any question about the identity of the corpse as there was in One, Two, Buckle my Shoe and there is no subterfuge about the time of death as there was in Hercule Poi
rot’s Christmas. Stabbing or any other blunt instrument would have met the killer’s requirement.
After the Funeral also includes one of Christie’s most daring examples of telling readers the truth and defying them to interpret it correctly. At the end of Chapter 3 we fondly imagine we are sharing the thoughts of Cora Lansquenet but, on closer examination, her name is never mentioned. The description of ‘a lady in wispy mourning’ applies equally well to her impersonator. Although the thoughts we share are perfectly believable as those of a sister in mourning, they are also capable of a more sinister interpretation when we later realise whose thoughts they actually are. This subterfuge is shared in an equally daring, and yet perfectly truthful, manner in Chapter 2 of Sparkling Cyanide.
Notebook 53 contains all of the notes for After the Funeral and they are more organised than many. They alternate with those for A Pocket Full of Rye, published later the same year. Along with the title, the basic plot appears on the first page of notes exactly as it does in the novel, with no crossings out or alternatives. The only point to change is that the ‘somebody’ who speculates about the murder of Richard is, in fact, ‘Cora’.
Throughout the notes it would seem that the plotting of this book went smoothly. Apart from one major deviation – the quick-change impersonation of housekeeper and householder – the notes accurately reflect the entire plot of the book. They proceed chronologically and there is very little deleting or revising or listing of alternatives. And, interestingly, there is no earlier brief jotting with the seed of the idea that was later to bloom into this novel. The encapsulation of the plot on the first page of Notebook 53 even includes the name of the artist of the concealed painting that provides the motive for the appallingly brutal murder.
