The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, a novel by Agatha Christie, was published in the UK in 1962 and a year later in the US under the title The Mirror Crack'd. The story features amateur detective Miss Marple solving a mystery in St. Mary Mead. Plot summary Jane Marple falls while walking in St. Mary Mead. She is helped by Heather Badcock, who brings her into her own home to rest. Over a cup of tea, Heather tells Miss Marple how she met the American actress Marina Gregg, who recently moved into the area and bought Gossington Hall from Miss Marple's friend Dolly Bantry. Marina and her latest husband, film producer Jason Rudd, host a fête in honour of St John Ambulance. Guests include Mrs Bantry, actress Lola Brewster, Marina's friend Ardwyck Fenn, and Heather with her husband Arthur. Heather corners Marina and launches into a long story about how they met years ago while Marina was visiting Bermuda, where Heather worked at the time. Heather had been ill, but was such a big fan of Marina that she left her sickbed to meet her favourite star and get her autograph. Mrs Bantry, standing nearby, notices a strange look cross Marina's face during Heather's monologue. A short while later, Heather collapses and dies. When Mrs Bantry recounts the events to Miss Marple, she uses lines from the poem "The Lady of Shalott" (in which a curse falls upon the heroine of the poem) to describe the look she observed on Marina's face. Detective Inspector Frank Cornish of the local police begins to investigate the case, learning that the drug had been in a daiquiri given to her by Marina after she spilled her own drink. Cornish hands the case over to Chief Inspector Dermot Craddock, of Scotland Yard, when the latter is assigned to it in response to the county's request for assistance. Craddock delves into the complicated past of the presumed target, Marina. Desperate to have a child, she had adopted three before giving birth to a mentally disabled son and suffering a nervous breakdown. One of the adopted children, Margot Bence, was at Gossington Hall on the day of the fête. Despite bad feeling towards her adoptive mother, she denies putting the drug into Marina's drink. Two more people are killed while the investigation continues: Ella Zielinsky, Jason's social secretary, dies after the atomizer she uses for