Rating: Summary: One of the very ordinary Christie novels I have read Review: In this novel, there are no grounds given for Jane Marple's suspicions towards the murderer except the appearance of the backside which is hardly credible.
Rating: Summary: As Feeble as Miss Marple Review: Late Christie and a dithery, fluttering Miss Marple who is only peripherally involved do not make a good combination. Although she does some surveying and map-reading to discover the house where the body of the woman seen strangled on board a train has been hidden, she does not apply reason to the problem of two murders caused by a tontine will and the identity of the woman (two fairly standard ploys), but experiences a revelatory flash-not, of course, shared with the reader, who has no chance of spotting the culprit.
Rating: Summary: As Feeble as Miss Marple Review: Late Christie and a dithery, fluttering Miss Marple who is only peripherally involved do not make a good combination. Although she does some surveying and map-reading to discover the house where the body of the woman seen strangled on board a train has been hidden, she does not apply reason to the problem of two murders caused by a tontine will and the identity of the woman (two fairly standard ploys), but experiences a revelatory flash-not, of course, shared with the reader, who has no chance of spotting the culprit.
Rating: Summary: 4:50 From Paddington Review: Please don't be thrown off by the 4-star rating I gave this book, if it had been a bit longer, it would have been 5-stars! Like every Christie novel I have ever read, and I think by now that I have read them all, some more than once, this one held my attention from the first word to the last!
Rating: Summary: They should have kept the title, but the book's still great Review: Ten lashes with a wet noodle to whoever changed the original fun title of "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!" to the boring old "4:50 From Paddington". Thank goodness they couldn't tamper with the delicious treat inside. What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw is a murder outside her train window, on another train running parallel to hers. However, not only can Mrs. McGillicuddy not convince anyone she saw a murder, they can't even find a body. Whoever thought he was committing the perfect crime, however, didn't take into account Mrs. McGillicuddy's old friend, Miss Marple, eighty-plus years old and sharp as a tack, and Miss Marple knows that, body or no body, Mrs. McGillicuddy is no fool; if she says she saw a murder, somebody got murdered. So all they have to do is: first, find the body, and second, find the murderer. To help in her search (she's not getting any younger after all), Miss Marple enlists the aid of Lucy Eyelesbarrow, one of the best of Agatha Christie's creations, a brilliant, no-nonsense young woman who actually finds the victim, a young French woman, strangled and interred in a stone sarcophagus located in a beat-up old barn at Rutherford Hall, a run-down estate owned by crotchety old Mr. Crackenthorpe, who's in no hurry to expire and leave the estate to his three sons and his spinster daughter. Someone's after the estate, though, and doesn't want to share the goodies either, because the body count starts to pile up at Rutherford Hall even as Miss Marple is unwinding the tangled skein of events that leads to a solution of the crime. Agatha Christie seems to have had fun writing this book; it zips along like a runaway train and we're with it right to the end. It's a shame Mrs. McGillicuddy never appeared in a subsequent book because she and Miss Marple are an inspired pairing; much more than Poirot's straight man, Hastings, Mrs. McGillicuddy has a fund of plain common sense and mother-wit that compliment Miss Marple's shrewd insight and would make the two of them a terrific detective team. This book is right up there with Christie's best.
Rating: Summary: They should have kept the title, but the book's still great Review: Ten lashes with a wet noodle to whoever changed the original fun title of "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!" to the boring old "4:50 From Paddington". Thank goodness they couldn't tamper with the delicious treat inside. What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw is a murder outside her train window, on another train running parallel to hers. However, not only can Mrs. McGillicuddy not convince anyone she saw a murder, they can't even find a body. Whoever thought he was committing the perfect crime, however, didn't take into account Mrs. McGillicuddy's old friend, Miss Marple, eighty-plus years old and sharp as a tack, and Miss Marple knows that, body or no body, Mrs. McGillicuddy is no fool; if she says she saw a murder, somebody got murdered. So all they have to do is: first, find the body, and second, find the murderer. To help in her search (she's not getting any younger after all), Miss Marple enlists the aid of Lucy Eyelesbarrow, one of the best of Agatha Christie's creations, a brilliant, no-nonsense young woman who actually finds the victim, a young French woman, strangled and interred in a stone sarcophagus located in a beat-up old barn at Rutherford Hall, a run-down estate owned by crotchety old Mr. Crackenthorpe, who's in no hurry to expire and leave the estate to his three sons and his spinster daughter. Someone's after the estate, though, and doesn't want to share the goodies either, because the body count starts to pile up at Rutherford Hall even as Miss Marple is unwinding the tangled skein of events that leads to a solution of the crime. Agatha Christie seems to have had fun writing this book; it zips along like a runaway train and we're with it right to the end. It's a shame Mrs. McGillicuddy never appeared in a subsequent book because she and Miss Marple are an inspired pairing; much more than Poirot's straight man, Hastings, Mrs. McGillicuddy has a fund of plain common sense and mother-wit that compliment Miss Marple's shrewd insight and would make the two of them a terrific detective team. This book is right up there with Christie's best.
Rating: Summary: Well Written Review: This book was interesting from beginning to end. This book was full of great,well developed characters.It was such a thrill at the end.The setting,at Rutherford Hall,and the English countryside was magnificent.Bits and pieces in the middle were slow but other than that it was great.If your looking for a great Miss Marple Novel this is it.
Rating: Summary: Good Book Review: This is a good Agatha Christie mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. Miss Marple is at her sharpest. A witty, funny, and enjoyable read.
Rating: Summary: Title Correction Review: This is a good Christie and fun to read, as most are. This little note is to all the American reviewers who despair the apparent title change from "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw' to '4:50 from Paddington'.Fact is that 4:50 is the the original title, as written by Dame Agatha. The rather lurid 'Mrs McGillicuddy' title is an American imposition. So for those to descry the idiocy of publishers and silly name changes...look to your own garden.
Rating: Summary: Title Correction Review: This is a good Christie and fun to read, as most are. This little note is to all the American reviewers who despair the apparent title change from "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw' to '4:50 from Paddington'. Fact is that 4:50 is the the original title, as written by Dame Agatha. The rather lurid 'Mrs McGillicuddy' title is an American imposition. So for those to descry the idiocy of publishers and silly name changes...look to your own garden.
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