4:50 From Paddington (Miss Marple Mysteries (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Not much of detective work
Review: What Mrs. McGillicuddy in fact saw, as the American title says, while riding the 4:50 train from Paddington to the West, was a murder being committed in a passing train on the neighboring track. At first, the only person who believes her is her friend Miss Marple; as Miss Marple's investigation proceeds, the police become involved. The action centers around Rutherford Hall, the home of the Crackenthorpe family. Miss Marple is growing more frail, and has to enlist the help of her grandnephew David, who works for the railways, as well as the Lucy Eylesbarrow, who poses as a maid in the Crackenthorpe house and her protégé Inspector Dermot Craddock.

Personally I found the solution more of an intuition and guess work than detective work. The story tends to drag on unnecessarily; and magically in the last chapter Miss Marple has a hunch and the mystery is solved. Miss Marple could have just as well have called in an oracle or a psychic and solved this mystery. An extreme disappointment.