The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie. Short summary

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At a reception for the famous actress Marina Gregg, one of the guests dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail. Miss Marple tries to figure out who would want to kill a simple country woman.

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A novel in the Miss Marple series. Popular American film actress Marina Gregg has bought a house in quiet St. Mary Meade and decided to throw a reception for the locals. At the party, one of the guests, Miss Beddock, drank a cocktail that was intended for Marina and died. The drink turned out to be poisoned.

The husband of the actress suspects that they wanted to poison Marina. The man told police that his wife had three adopted children and one long-awaited son, who was born with dementia due to having had rubella during pregnancy. Later, arsenic is found in the coffee intended for Marina. Shortly thereafter, Giuseppe the butler is murdered.

Miss Marple, as usual, solves the case — the murderer was Marina Gregg herself, who decided to take revenge on Miss Beddock for infecting the actress with rubella. The murderer threw the medicine into her glass and then offered Miss Beddock her cocktail. She put arsenic in her coffee as a distraction, and killed the butler for trying to blackmail the actress.