4:50 from Paddington - (Miss Marple Mysteries) by Agatha Christie (Paperback)

About the Book

Previously published as: What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw!

Book Synopsis

In this exclusive authorized edition from the Queen of Mystery, a woman in one train witnesses a murder occurring in another passing one...and only Miss Marple believes her story.

For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Mrs. McGillicuddy's friend Jane Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there are no other witnesses, no suspects, and no case -- for there is no corpse, and no one is missing.

Miss Marple asks her highly efficient and intelligent young friend Lucy Eyelesbarrow to infiltrate the Crackenthorpe family, who seem to be at the heart of the mystery, and help unmask a murderer.

From the Back Cover

For an instant the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder. Helplessly, she stared out of her carriage window as a man remorselessly tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away.

But who, apart from Miss Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there were no suspects, no other witnesses . . . and no corpse.

Review Quotes

"Of all Christie's detectives, it's Jane Marple who best understood what can drive ordinary people to the extraordinary act of taking a life." -- S. J. Rozan, Edgar Award-winning author

"The great mistress of the last-minute switch is at it again.... Even the experts have given up any attempts to out-guess Miss Christie." -- New Yorker

"Precisely what one expects: the most delicious bamboozling possible in a babble of bright talk and a comprehensive bristle of suspicion all adeptly managed to keep you much too alert elsewhere to see the neat succession of clues that catch a murderer we never so much as thought of." -- New York Herald Tribune

"A model detective story, there is never a dull moment." -- The Times (London)

"The suspense is agonizing." -- Daily Mail (London)