Her mind went back to the scene she had witnessed. Horrible, quite horrible… She was a strong-nerved woman, but she shivered. What a strange—what a fantastic thing to happen to her, Elspeth McGillicuddy!
4:50 From Paddington
by Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
About: While looking out of the window of her train carriage, Mrs McGillicuddy happened to see into another carriage window of a passing train. Inside was a man, strangling to death a young woman. But when she reports this fantastical murder, no one believes her and no dead body is found. Her friend, Miss Marple, is the only person who may be able to shed light on this impossible crime.
Thoughts
This was an interesting case - I really enjoyed the set-up of us witnessing the crime but then nothing - no dead body, no suspects, and seemingly nothing to go on. Things get more interesting when we start following not a detective or Miss Marple, but one Miss Lucy Eyelesbarrow. Her role in the story was really entertaining to me. I liked her ingenuity, her effectiveness, and her constant marriage proposals was a bit of fun.
There's atmosphere to the novel, especially in discovering the body, and some great twists. I didn't guess the murderer but I enjoyed the reveal. I do think the Crackenthorpe family as a whole weren't particularly memorable as characters. The brothers especially merged together for a while. But I think it's the kind of mystery that's interesting because of the mystery, not the suspects.
Overall, I liked that this was a bit different from previous Marple's I've read. Certainly you don't have a little old village feel to the story and Lucy was a great protagonist to solve the crime with.
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