They Do it with Mirrors (also published as Murder with Mirrors) is a Miss Marple novel, published in 1952, that delves into the unsettling atmosphere of a grand, yet emotionally chaotic, boarding school/reformatory, where an elderly friend of Marple's, Carrie Louise Serrocold, resides. Miss Marple visits her old friend, quickly sensing an atmosphere of menace beneath the surface. Her fears are realized when a visiting relative is dramatically shot and killed in a seemingly impossible situation, witnessed by many. The title refers to the theatrical nature of the crime—a complex illusion designed to mislead the witnesses. The novel is a classic locked-room scenario, allowing Marple to excel at analyzing the psychology of the witnesses and exposing the smoke-and-mirrors deception behind the murder, proving that things are rarely as they appear on the surface.
