4:50 from Paddington (Miss Marple #8) by Agatha Christie
4.5 of 5 stars
Book Blurb:
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.
Book Review:
Trust Miss Marple to realize that a crime has taken place even where there was no proof whatsoever.
This
book also referenced 'A Murder is Announced' as the first time Miss
Marple met Inspector Craddock. What a lovely story and a delightful
setting. I also learnt about tontines. I recently got into a very
intense discussion / argument with someone who said only non-fiction was
worth reading because fiction doesn't teach one anything - this person
completely disregarded everything one gains from fiction and just
brought it down to educational content and instruction. Well, this book
taught me what tontines were. So take that.
Getting back to
this book - families can be strange and people can be cruel and
coincidences can happen. The thing is, I never find Christie books to be
so unbelievable, even though it's obviously fiction and obviously
written as entertainment. It's just that she portrays her characters so
vividly that you just get to know then and often come to like and
appreciate them.
That's how I felt about Lucy Eyelesbarrow
here. A bright young woman who made herself an invaluable resource in
life, and one for Miss Marple in this story. I wish there were more such
collaborative tales between these two. I haven't read all her books
yet, so there may just be hope, but I have a feeling it's unlikely.
Let's see.
As for this book, it's a quick, interesting read, and as always, I definitely recommend Agatha Christie, and +1 for Lucy alone.
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