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4:50 from Paddington: A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries Book 8) Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5,956 ratings

In Agatha Christie’s classic mystery 4:50 From Paddington, 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.

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From the Publisher

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9780063214033 image 9780063213920 image 9780063214088 image 9780063221581 image 9780063136069 image 9780063221628 image
MOVING FINGER MURDER AT THE VICARAGE 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON NEMESIS MARPLE TWELVE STORIES AT BERTRAM’S HOTEL
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9780063214019 image 9780063214064 image 9780063214057 image 9780063214040 image 9780063214149 image 9780063221550 image
BODY IN THE LIBRARY POCKET FULL OF RYE THEY DO IT WITH THE MIRRORS A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY MISS MARPLE
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Editorial Reviews

Review

One of Miss Marple's best yarns.

-- "New York Times"

A model detective story; there is never a dull moment.

-- "Times (London)"

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"

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"

The suspense is agonizing.

-- "Daily Mail (London)"

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.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000FC1PLQ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (March 30, 2004)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 30, 2004
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2945 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0008196583
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5,956 ratings

About the author

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Agatha Christie
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Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie began writing during the First World War and wrote over 100 novels, plays and short story collections. She was still writing to great acclaim until her death, and her books have now sold over a billion copies in English and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. Yet Agatha Christie was always a very private person, and though Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple became household names, the Queen of Crime was a complete enigma to all but her closest friends.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
5,956 global ratings
Kindle Edition has garbage characters sprinkled throughout.
1 Star
Kindle Edition has garbage characters sprinkled throughout.
This is not a review of the content of the book, which seems like a reasonably good Miss Marple book. Unfortunately, the Kindle edition has many garbage characters sprinkled throughout the text in place of apostrophes and other punctuation, and it makes the text pretty unreadable. I have reported the issue and I hope the publisher cleans up the eBook so that I can finish this cozy mystery.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2011
I'm not going to give you a synopsis of the book, you can get that anywhere and it doesn't belong in a book review at Amazon. This is an actual review.

That said, I really enjoyed this one. Is it old fashioned? Sure. Does that make it boring? Absolutely not. In fact, it makes it all the more interesting. Like all of her books, it's a window into the past. Before modern day forensics there were actual brains that solved crimes. Imagine that!

The murder takes place within the first few pages, which is not always the case with Christie books. Most of the time it takes a while before we get there (e.g., Death on the Nile). The pace is near perfect; it doesn't move too fast, nor too slow. Books with too fast a pace become confusing and too slow a pace puts readers to sleep. This one is just enough that you can digest what is going on without being overwhelmed. Speaking of which, though there are a number of characters each are introduced in such a way that you can absorb who they are without it being shoved in your face. Some books worry too much about details all the way down to their life history. Not for Christie, she gets right to the point.

As for the mystery part itself, the ending isn't the typical predictable kind (I can't think of any Christie novels that are). I think most will be fully surprised. It's also worth noting that it isn't cheesy either. Or at least, I don't think so.

One thing worth noting, Miss Marple isn't in the book much. This is a surprise to me. I expected her to be the main character, but she was not. She is credited with the mystery, as well she should be, but if you're a fan of hers, be prepared to not see her as often as you would expect.

All in all this is an exceptional book! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes film noir in addition to the obvious, that being other mystery type books.
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2013
I've never read much Agatha Christie, and don't really know why. Now that I have a Kindle, I plan to stock up on this author whenever I see a good price ! According to the blurb at the end of the book, Christie is the "most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare." That fact alone is proof that she has a universal appeal.

I won't recap much of the plot here, as the product description is sufficient for that purpose (and I certainly would not want to leak any spoilers.) The action commences immediately, and the murder occurs within the first pages of the book. But, there is no body, and the witness, the doddering spinster Elspeth McGillicuddy, is not considered credible by the authorities. However, she convinces her good friend, Miss Marple, that she did indeed witness the strangulation of a woman in a passing train. Miss Marple does a bit of preliminary sleuthing to determine where the body might have been tossed off the train. Then she hires a competent younger woman, Lucy Eyelesbarrow (her new understudy perhaps?), to take the house manager position at the estate of the Crackenthorpe family. The estate is near the railway line where Miss Marple presumes that the body would have been disposed of.

We meet the Crackenthorpe family members, all of whom seem to be waiting for the patriarch to kick off so they can get their hands on their share of the estate. Christie has a fine way of sketching out new characters with a brief, succinct description that provides you just enough information to decide how they fit into the picture that she is painting. None of the Crackenthorpes are particularly admirable, with the exception of Emily who seems to be trying to hold the whole estate together single handedly. Other murders start to pile up, but since Christie didn't stir up much sympathy towards those victims, their passing is not tragic.

A lot of Miss Marple's sleuthing appears to occur offstage, and when she finally swoops in to reveal the true murderer, it all seems a bit forced and hurried. However, up until then I found the mystery quite engaging, and the comings and goings of all the characters kept me turning the pages (or rather hitting the forward button) rapidly.

One aspect of Christie's writing that I especially enjoy is the interesting names - Griselda, Eyelesbarrow, McGillicuddy, Wimborne, Quimper, Crackenthorpe, et al. The unique names help you to remember the many characters that inhabit the book.

I will certainly be looking for more in the Miss Marple series, and am sure that I am well on my way to becoming an Agatha Christie fan
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2024
I read this book more than 60 years ago, but I had completely forgotten how it came out. And as I read it this time, I thought I had the solution all figured out. When I got to the ending, surprise!!
But let’s go back to the beginning of the story. A woman sees another woman getting strangled. Who will believe her? How will Jane Marple go about proving that there actually was a murder? And who really was the victim?
Will you figure it out? Give it your best shot.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2023
In my opinion, this is the best Agatha Christie book!
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2023
Red herrings, false leads abound. But her plot is believable as is Miss Marple’s solving it. Like the book far more than the movie.

Top reviews from other countries

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Lissa B
5.0 out of 5 stars Unbeatable Classic Agatha Christie
Reviewed in Canada on October 4, 2023
Enjoyed re-reading one of the best Agatha Christie mysteries. Great fun.
CZ
5.0 out of 5 stars Guter Zustand, schnell geliefert
Reviewed in Germany on November 20, 2023
Sehr zufrieden
Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Agatha Christie at her best
Reviewed in Spain on May 23, 2023
Good reading.. very entertaining... love it
Shweta Sharan
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible book with a nail-biting finish!
Reviewed in India on November 28, 2022
This is my first Miss Marple book and it did not disappoint! I have always been a Hercules Poirot fan and I wondered if the Miss Marple books would add up because they are about an old lady who may not have the resources to do some dogged sleuthing. However, I guess I underestimated Miss Marple, much like her adversaries and the many murderers she caught.

The premise of this book is so unique. A murder takes place on another train that runs parallel to the one that old Elspeth McGillicuddy is in and she is determined that she witnessed a man strangling a woman to death. The next day, the murder is not reported, and neither is the body found in the days to come.

The ingenuity with which Miss Marple finds out how the murder was committed, where the body could be found, and finally, the identity of the murderer, will wow you! Go for it.
Ross
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic
Reviewed in Italy on July 18, 2021
Interessante e mai noioso
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