Mary Bain

In the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Mrs Mary Bain is a neighbour of Arthur and Heather Badcock. Her son works near St. Mary Mead, so after the death of her husband, she came to live at The Development, and her son boarded with her. At the time of the events of the novel, Mrs Bain had lived there for six months.

Mrs Bain is described as a "dark, rather intense-looking woman of about forty years of age". She has "gipsy colouring", which goes with her dark hair and eyes.

After Heather's death, and the inquest which follows, Inspector Cornish drives Arthur home, to interview him there. Mrs Bain is already there, and tells Arthur that she was just getting ready some tea for him, as she thought he would need it.

Inspector Cornish notices a watchful look in Mrs Bain's eyes, and a slight start that she gives when Arthur introduces him. He thinks that she has had some connection with the police in the past, which has left her wary and ill at ease. However, according to Arthur, she is "very kind, a very good neighbour, a very sympathetic woman".

Later in the novel, Cherry Baker asks her husband, Jim, if he thinks Arthur and Mrs Bain will "make a match of it". Jim is not interested, and tells Cherry off, saying that Arthur's wife has only just died.