4:50 from Paddington

Rating:
Summary: Back Loaded Plot
Review: 4.50 to Paddington takes a while to get started with much of the book centered around trying to decide if a murder actually took place. Once that it's decided that a murder did take place the plot picks up and the rest of the book reads more like a typical Agatha Christie.

Rating:
Summary: A good book, but definitelly not Chistie's best...
Review: After getting quite tired of Hercule Poirot's character and style, it was refreshing to read a Ms. Marple novel, especially since other characters, such as Lucy, help her out, so it's not a "standard" Agatha Christie book (most of Hercule Poirot's books, for instance, usually have Poirot arriving in the scene after the crime, Poirot observes and talk to people, often there are an extra crime or two happening before he solves it, then he gathers the survivors and in turns puts the blame on everyone until he finds the guilty party). but there are others, such as "And Then There Were None" who are much better than this one...

Rating:
Summary: Murder Without A Corpse Challenges Miss Marple
Review: In "The 4:50 From Paddington" Agatha Christie gives us another in her long list of detective stories involving a large family at their estate. This is, in my opinion, one of the best, and begins when Elspeth McGillicuddy, a friend of Miss Marple's, is returning from Christmas shopping in London and on her way to visit Jane in St. Mary Mead. Her train is running alongside another one on a nearby track, and Mrs. McGillicuddy has an excellent view inside the parallel carriage of the other train. What she sees is the back of a man strangling a woman. No one believes Mrs. McGillicuddy since no corpse is found and no injured woman turns up at any hospital. Only Miss Marple believes her friend. Although Mrs. McGillicuddy is leaving for Ceylon to spend Christmas with her son, Miss Marple continues her quest to prove her friend's story. First she books passage on the same train and narrows the search for where a body should have been thrown to the area around Rutherford Hall, the large family estate of the Crackenthorpes. The family consists of the semi-invalided and grouchy Mr. Crackenthorpe, his daughter Emma, three sons, a son-in-law, and a grandson. At least four of the men are likely candidates for the strangler.

Because Miss Marple is not young enough to physically search for the body in unknown territory, she engages Lucy Eyelesbarrow, one of Christie's most interesting female creations. Lucy quickly gains employment at Rutherford Hall as a domestic and busily does all the legwork for Miss Marple. Meanwhile, Jane Marple has taken up residence at a nearby home and advises and assists Lucy.

In 1961, this became the basis for "Murder, She Said," the first of four films starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple. Although it deviates from the book, most notably in the omission of Lucy, it is enjoyable and worth viewing.

Rating:
Summary: Joan Hickson reads one of Christie's best
Review: In the 1961 mystery-comedy "Murder She Said," Margaret Rutherford plays a feisty version of Miss Marple (an interpretation that infuriated author Agatha Christie) who takes a job as a domestic to solve a murder she saw committed as her train was passing another. Rutherford shared a scene or two with another character actress named Joan Hickson, who was to play Miss Marple in a series of television mysteries that were far more faithful to their originals than were the films. So if you have already seen the two dramatic treatments of "4:50 From Paddington" or (as it was called over here) "What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw" and love comparisons, you might want to make a triple one with what Christie actually wrote by either reading the book itself or hearing an authoritative reading of it by Joan Hickson herself on an Audio Partners set on 5 audio cassettes or on 6 CDs.

In a houseful of potential murderers, the very interesting Christie character named Lucy Eyelesbarrow takes a position in order to find the body. As one commentator mentions, she is Christie's strongest independent woman to date and possibly in all of the mysteries. So where Rutherford simply was given a fatter role, the original story is that of Lucy with some fancy brainwork by Miss Marple, of course.

A very good entry in Audio Partners readings.