::READERS REVIEWS::

Return of a Classic - A good solid Christie in a sturdy and economical hardcover edition. No special features, but the text doesn't need any. 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON generally makes the short list of "best Christies." One of Miss Jane Marple's friends has seen a murder taking place on another passenger train, and, absent a body or a missing persons complaint, no one takes an old lady seriously--except Miss marple. I'd like to say that the solution to the murder hangs together nicely, adn I never saw it coming.

"I've Just Seen a Murder!" - Elspeth McGillicuddy has just finished her Christmas shopping and relaxing on the journey to her friend's house, when a secondary train pulls up and runs alongside her own. Imagine her horror when a blind on the second train snaps up, allowing her to witness to a man strangling a woman to death! Horrified, she notifies the police, but when no body is found the following day (either on the train or off it), Mrs McGillicuddy decides to get some specialized help.

Enter Miss Marple, an old maid who is often described as "fluffy and dithery", but who nevertheless has a razor-sharp mind, and believes every word of her friend's strange tale. Taking it upon herself to investigate the murder, she comes to the conclusion that the killer may very well have thrown the body from the train at a particular point along the track in which it would fall down an embankment and onto the grounds of the Rutherford House.

Yet Miss Marple is an elderly woman now; she can't very well go tramping around an estate in search of a dead body. And so, "like a general planning a campaign," she decides to set someone else on the case. The perfect person for the job is Lucy Eyelesbarrow, a young woman who works as a domestic labourer whose competency, organizational skills, and general air of efficiency have put her services in very high demand. She is intrigued by Miss Marple's request for her to seek employment with the Crackenthorpes at Rutherford House in order to find a body.

I trust it's not too much of a spoiler to say that this is precisely what she does, and the police are called in to investigate the family. The Crackenthorpes are a dysfunctional family of three sons and one daughter: the grown children of Luther Crankenthorpe, a cantankerous old miser who refuses to oblige the next generation by dying. Also on the scene is Crankenthorpe's son-in-law, his young grandson, and the long-suffering family doctor. Quite a neat little bundle of suspects; and so Lucy stays on at the house to investigate, with Miss Marple supporting her from a distance.

Lucy is a wonderful character; fiercely independent, financially secure, and in love with nothing except the way she lives her life. She takes the jobs that appeal to her, fixes the terms herself, and then spends the money she makes on short holidays in which she broadens her clientele. Amazingly enough, she is not paired off with any male character by the end of the novel (though she has two prospects, her choice is left ambiguous and I prefer to believe that she stayed single!)

Although it has a memorable beginning and end, what with the circumstances of McGillicuddy's witness to the murder and the hilariously far-fetched exposure of the murderer, the middle of "4:50 from Paddington" seemed to sag a little. The three Crackenthorpe brothers (Harold, Alfred and Cedric) don't have very sharp characterization, and the final denouncement from Miss Marple seemed to come more from guess-work than actual deduction.

Still, no Agatha Christie book can ever be considered a waste of time, and as always, there are several mentions/appearances of names and faces from the past: Inspector Craddock, Raymond West, Sir Henry Clithering, and Grisela Clement, who in Murder at the Vicarage: A Miss Marple Mystery (Agatha Christie Collection) was pregnant, in The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery was seen playing with her toddler on the vicarage floor, and here, speaks to her grown-up son about Miss Marple's latest exploits. How time flies!

You can skip the 4:50 - Agatha Christie is a phenomenal crime fiction writer, however I was slightly disappointed with this novel. Miss Marple's aged, feeble detective efforts hardly impress, and the main character does not accomplish much outside of a fantastic pudding and roast.

I would refer readers to other mind-bender classics such as And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express.

WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK? - What "improvements" have been made for the Bantam edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins (4:50 FROM PADDINGTON) and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Signet, Berkley, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

Old ladies and dead people on trains - - it must be Agatha Christie.

On the train ride home from shopping, Mrs. McGillicuddy sees a man strangling a woman in a train running parallel to her own. Being a woman of some age, when no corroborating evidence quickly comes to light, Mrs. McGillicuddy's concerns are dismissed by all who are informed. Not, however, by the famed Jane Marple. Convinced of that her friend correctly interpreted what she saw, Miss Marple sets out to determine how the murder was so effectively disguised. In finding first the body, then the killer, Miss Marple assigns crack domestic Lucy Eyelesbarrow to Rutherford Hall, home of the dysfunctional Crackenthorpes. Each of the family members, we soon learn, has reason to kill, a sketchy alibi and questionable character. Then, more people start dying.

This book combines two settings well known to Agatha Christie fans - trains and giant, old countryside homes. Many aspects of the plot, too, are quite familiar - dysfunctional families, money payable on death, hidden identities, etc. This book will, thus, no doubt please many of Ms. Christie's fans. I, however, found little to separate this book from Ms. Christie's other books. Indeed, I never really became engaged with this book because, it seems to me, the characters were pretty flat and the story felt about half told. A few interesting ideas here, but not, in my opinion, one of Agatha's best.

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw - I enjoyed listening to Joan Hickson's reading of "4:50 from Paddington." She did an excellent job of portraying the different characters, but also somehow making it seem as if the entire story were being related by Miss Marple herself. The interesting thing about this book is that although it's billed as a "Miss Marple Mystery," Miss Marple is not really the main character. In fact, no one really is the main character--unless it's the murder itself. And despite my usual method of assuming the least likely suspect to be the murderer and working back from that, I never figured out whodunit until Miss Marple revealed all. Very entertaining story.