Christie, Agatha - 4.50 from Paddington / What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw! (1957)

Review by Nick Fuller

3/5

Late Christie and a dithery, fluttery Miss Marple who is only peripherally involved do not make a good combination. Although Miss Marple does some surveying and map-reading to discover the house where the body of the woman seen strangled on board a train has been hidden, she does not apply reason to the problem of the woman's identity and the two murders caused by a tontine will (two fairly standard ploys), but experiences a revelatory flash — not, of course, shared with the reader, who has no chance of spotting the culprit among the three surviving men.

Note strong similarities with Hercule Poirot's Christmas.