镜中的幸福：《借镜杀人》（阿加莎经典作品英文选读+原音朗读）
阿加莎·克里斯蒂是世界三大推理宗师之一，其推理作品可分为四类：
一， 以波洛（Poirot）为侦探主角的系列；
二，以马普尔（Marple）小姐为侦探主角的系列；
三，汤米和塔彭丝夫妇为主角的系列；
四，以业余侦探为主角的系列。
（世界三大推理宗师，中间为阿加莎）
《借镜杀人》（They do it With Mirrors）是Marple小姐探案系列中的一本。Marple小姐和Ruth是女校时代的同窗好友。Ruth担心自己的妹妹Carrie会遇到不祥的事情，请求Marple小姐与自己一同去Carrie与现任丈夫Lewis的庄园看望。女人的直觉往往准得莫名其妙，庄园里果然出现了意外。案件发生后，最引人注意的是Carrie的三段婚姻，而随之而来的是亲子、养子、养子孩子等错综复杂的人物关系，其间的利益关系更加令人眼花缭乱……
正如阿加莎·克里斯蒂在自传中写的，那些体现某种道德的小说，实际上是“再现了那种古老的通俗道德传说：恶的毁灭和善的胜利”，她在小说中设置了精巧的结构和跌宕起伏的情节，通过对罪与罚的表现来呼唤人性的善良。案件背后的真相究竟是什么呢？翻开小说，一探究竟吧！
Chapter 21
Miss Marple stood in the Great Hall and asked the Inspector to stand beside her. ‘It’s something I want to show you. Something Alex Restarick made me see. It’s a question of magic tricks. They do it with mirrors, you know — that sort of thing — if you understand me.’
Inspector Curry did not understand. He wondered if Miss Marple was quite right in the head.
‘I want you to think of this place as a stage set, Inspector. As it was on the night Christian Gulbrandsen was killed. You’re here in the audience, looking at the people on the stage. Mrs Serrocold and myself and Mrs Strete, and Gina and Stephen — and just like on the stage there are entrances and exits and the characters go out to different places. Only, when you’re in the audience, you don’t think where they are really going. They go out “to the front door” or “to the kitchen” and when the door opens you see a little bit of painted scenery. But really of course they go out to the sides of the stage — or the back of the stage with carpenters and electricians, and other characters waiting to come on. They go out — to a different world.’
‘I don’t quite see, Miss Marple.’
‘Oh, I know — I suppose it sounds very silly — but if you think of this as a play and the scene is “the Great Hall Stonygates” — what exactly is behind the scene? I mean — what is behind the stage? The terrace —isn’t it? The terrace and a lot of windows opening on to it.
‘And that, you see, is how the magic trick was done. It was tick of The Lady Cut ln Half that made me think of it.’
‘The Lady Cut In Half ?’ Inspector Curry was now quite sure that Miss Marple was mad.
‘A most exciting magic trick. You must have seen it — only not really one girl but two girls. The head of one and the feet of the other. It looks like one person and is really two. And so I thought it could equally be the other way about. Two people could be really one person.’
‘Two people really one?’ Inspector Curry looked desperate.
‘Yes. Not for long. How long did your Constable take in the garden to run to this house and back? Two minutes and forty-five seconds, wasn’t it? This would be less than that. Well under two minutes.’
‘What was under two minutes?’
“The magic trick. The trick when it wasn’t two people but one person. In there — in the study. We’re only looking at the visible part of the stage. Behind the scenes there is the terrace and a row of windows. So easy when there are two people in the study to open the study window, get out, run along the terrace — those footsteps Alex heard — in at the side door, shoot Christian Gulbrandsen and run back. During that time, the other person in the study does both voices so that we’re all quite sure there are two people in there. And so there were most of the time, but not for that little period of under two minutes.’
Inspector Curry found his breath and his voice. ‘Do you mean that it was Edgar Lawson who ran along the terrace and shot Gulbrandsen? Edgar Lawson who poisoned Mrs Serrocold?’
‘But you see, Inspector, no one has been poisoning Mrs Serrocold at all. That’s where the misdirection comes in. Someone very cleverly used the fact that Mrs Serrocold’s pains from arthritis were not unlike the symptoms of arsenic poisoning. It’s the old magician’s trick of forcing a card on you. It is easy to add arsenic to a bottle of medicine — easy to add a few lines to a typewritten letter. But the real reason for Mr Gulbrandsen’s coming here was the most likely reason — something to do with the Gulbrandsen Trust. Money, in fact. Suppose that there had been embezzlement — embezzlement on a very big scale — you see where that points? To just one person.’
embezzlement n. 挪用公款
Inspector Curry gasped, ‘Lewis Serrocold?’ he said in disbelief.
‘Lewis Serrocold.’ said Miss Marple.
文化注释
The trick of The Lady Cut In Half
The trick of The Lady Cut In Half is a popular magic trick where a woman or girl gets into a long rectangular box. The magician closes the box and at one end we can see the lady’s feet and at the other we can see her head. The magician talks to the lady and asks her to move her feet, which she does and we see her talking and laughing. The magician covers the box with a cloth and cuts the box into two pieces and takes away the cloth. The lady is alive — talking and laughing and she moves her feet again even though they are now in another box.
The title of the story: They Do It with Mirrors is also connected to magicians and the tricks they do.
戏法“被切成两半的女士”
戏法“被切成两半的女士”是一种流行的魔术手法，表演时一名女士或女孩钻进一个长方形的盒子里。魔术师关闭盒子，我们可以在盒子一端看到女士的脚，在另一端则可以看到她的头。魔术师跟女士说话，让她移动自己的脚，她会照办，我们还能听到她的说话声和笑声。接下来魔术师用布盖住盒子，将其一分为二，然后将布移走。那位女士还活着——依然在说话、大笑，此时已在另一半盒子中的双脚也在活动。
本书的题目"借镜杀人"也与魔术师及其表演手法有关。
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《斯泰尔斯庄园奇案》（The Mysterious Affair at Styles）《鸽群中的猫》（Cat among the Pigeons）《云中奇案》（Death in the Cloud）《命案目睹记》（4.50 from Paddington）《死亡约会》（Appointment with Death）《国际学舍谋杀案》（Hickory Dickory Dock）《古屋疑云》（Peril at End House）《罗杰疑案》（The Murder of Roger Ackroyd）《东方快车谋杀案》（Murder on the Orient Express）《控方证人及其他》（The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories）《尼罗河上的惨案》（Death on the Nile）《穿棕色套装的人》（The Man in the Brown Suit）《黑麦奇案》（A Pocket Full of Rye）《悬崖上的谋杀》（Why Didn't They Ask Evans）《书房命案》（The Body in the Library）《魔手》（The Moving Finger）《寓所谜案》（The Murder at the Vicarage）《怪屋》（Crooked House）《闪光的氰化物》（Sparkling Cyanide）《葬礼之后》（After the Funeral）《弄假成真》（Dead Man's Folly）《借镜杀人》（They Do It with Mirrors）
《密码》（N or M？）《地狱之旅》（Destination Unknown）
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