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4.50 from Paddington (Miss Marple) - Agatha Christie.




                                     Image Courtesy : Amazon

Mrs. Elspeth McGillicuddy is on a visit to St. Mary Mead to meet her friend Miss Marple in a Train where she sees a man strangling a woman in the adjacent train. She informs the ticket collector who does not believe her. She reached St. Mary Mead and informed  Miss Maple about the murder. Miss Marple decides to find where the body of the dead person is. With the help of train time table and local maps, Miss Marple concludes that Rutherford hall as the possible location of where the body could be hidden. She hires Lucy Eyelesbarrow, an intelligent house keeper, to assist her in finding the body in the Rutherford hall. Mr Crackenthorpe and his family lives in Rutherford Hall. Lucy enters Rutherford Hall as a house keeper and successfully finds the dead body. Who is the dead person? Does the murder has any connection with Rutherford hall? Who killed the dead person? 4.50 from Paddington answers all these questions.


There is never a dull moment in Agatha Christie books. There is none in this one either. The plot is entertaining and engaging. As much as we love to see Miss Marple in the book, she does not appear extensively. Instead, its Lucy Eyelesbarrow who takes centerstage. Agatha christie is usually famous for leaving hidden clues in the build up to the climax. However, there is no clue at all till the end of the book on who the murderer is. I am not sure on how Miss Marple identified on who the murderer is. Infact, I reread the last chapters hoping that there might be some explanation that I overlooked. However, I could’nt find any explanation that would logically convince me on how Miss Marple identified the murder. To add to that, the motive behind the murder is directly taken from one of her famous earlier works!

 And, By the way, Who does Lucy marry at the end? Hope it is Bryan.

An engaging plot but wobbling climax! That’s how I would like to put 4.50 from Paddington.

My rating : 3/5

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