4.50 from Paddington (1957)

by Agatha Christie

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Miss Marple (7), Miss Marple: Chronological (17)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
4,652	104	2,446	(3.76)	199
Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML: 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.… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by	bibliotecasss, JeremyReppy, Bambean, lazybee, C.Clagett, simply_jennifer, mrslindseyroman, Jessie3093
Legacy Libraries	Carl Sandburg

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

Books Read in 2014 (62)

Books Read in 2017 (209)

Best public-transport fiction (6)

» 17 more

Books Read in 2023 (328)

Golden Age of Detection (18)

Top Five Books of 2018 (530)

Books With Numbers in the Title (47)

Books Read in 2010 (38)

Female Author (553)

Books About Murder (53)

Female Protagonist (388)

Books Read in 2022 (1,533)

Detective Stories (42)

Books Read in 2018 (3,172)

Agatha Christie Miss Marple (7)

Stories where trains play a supporting character (3)

Nifty Fifties (67)

Teresa's favorite mystery series and authors (45)

Books With Time Words in the Title (44)

Ten Train Thrillers (2)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 199 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (97) Spanish (2) Danish (2) Italian (1) Dutch (1) All languages (103)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 97 (next | show all)

This was... okay? Honestly, as famous as the book is, I expected it to be better. Miss Marple isn't in it for the most part(the middle), and even though I really do like Lucy, I wanted to read a murder mystery, not a lot about her and this one particular family. Miss Marple is the one that kicks off the case, which is done very impressivly, and the one who solves it in the end, which unfortunately came across as slightly stupid, coincidental and disappointing to me. (

)

charmaininthelibrary | May 15, 2024 |

This was my second Agatha Christie read, and I gotta say, it didn't really grab me.

I found myself past halfway through the book without really caring who the culprit was or why.
It wasn't until the characters I suspected turned out to be innocent that things got interesting.

The ending totally blindsided me—I didn't see it coming at all! Although, I have to admit, just as they were about to catch the killer, I couldn't help but blurt out who I thought it was and why - and sure enough!

It was a fun read overall, but I didn't feel as invested in it as I hoped I would. (

)

selsha | Mar 17, 2024 |

3.5
money, money, money. i liked the characters especially lucy (

)

highlandcow | Mar 13, 2024 |

Charming, cozy mystery

I read my first two Agatha Christie this past year; both were Inspector Poirot mysteries. This is my first Miss Marple mystery. I adore the characters Ms. Christie introduces us to in her stories; Ms. Marple is delightful. Beyond that, I was a little less impressed with the unfolding of the mystery than I was in And Then There Were None or Murder on the Orient Express, but I liked the character development better, and the characters themselves. (

)

bschweiger | Feb 4, 2024 |

Light fare in Agatha Christie’s comfort zone of defined characters, roles, and traits: everything is orderly and fits in, foul deeds and malign intentions included.
There’s little nuance or reflection, as the story is always moving neatly on. The key scene of this book, an assault witnessed through a train window from another train travelling alongside, is certainly memorable. Miss Marple is the detective of record, but barely features in this book, acting from a distance, and appointing here instead another capable and independent woman, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to do the hands-on sleuth work. She does it, and the case is solved, the book resolved. (

)

eglinton | Dec 31, 2023 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 97 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (49 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Christie, Agatha	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Barnard, Robert	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Fox, Emilia	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Franceschini, Paola	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Grant, Richard E.	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Griffini, Grazia Maria	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Hickson, Joan	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Himmelstoss, Beate	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Laine, Anna-Liisa	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Orengo, Nico	Foreword	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Simonsen, Helge	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Whitfield, June	Performer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Miss Marple (7)

Miss Marple: Chronological (17)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Black Dog & Leventhal Agatha Christie series (1Q 2007)

Delfinserien (318)

Fontana (1511)

Mirabilia (21)

Nova terra (51)

— 4 more

Os Mestres da Literatura Policial (703)

SaPo (87)

Scherz Krimi (981)

Vampiro (189)

Is contained in

Five Complete Miss Marple Novels: The Body in the Library, A Caribbean Mystery, The Mirror Crack'd, Nemesis, What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple Omnibus (Volume 1) by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie Crime Collection: 4:50 from Paddington, Lord Edgware Dies, Murder In Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Murder on Board: Three Complete Mystery Novels: The Mystery of the Blue Train / What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw / Death in the Air by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express [and] 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

4.50 From Paddington / After the Funeral / A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

(show 17 more)

Quintuplet #08 by Agatha Christie

4.50 From Paddington / Murder in Mesopotamia / A Pocket Full of Rye / Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

4.50 From Paddington [and] The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

Taken at the Flood / 4.50 From Paddington / The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

4.50 From Paddington / Cat Among the Pigeons / Crooked House by Agatha Christie

4:50 From Paddington [and] The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie

4.50 from Paddington / They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

The Murder at the Vicarage [and] 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

The Complete Miss Marple Collection (Miss Marple Mysteries) by Agatha Christie

The Body in the Library [and] 4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

At Bertram's Hotel/ 4:50 From Paddington / They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

The Best of Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery, Sleeping Murder, 4:50 From Paddington, At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie

The Best of Miss Marple: What Mrs. Mcgillicuddy Saw!, A Caribbean Mystery, A Pocket Full of Rye and At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie

4.50 from Paddington / Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie

The Man in the Brown Suit [and] 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

The Amazing Miss Marple / A Murder Is Announced / 4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

Ross Macdonald Selects Great Stories of Suspense by Ross Macdonald

Has the adaptation

Murder, She Said [1961 film] by George Pollock

4:50 from Paddington (BBC Radio Collection) by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Set One [Videorecording] by Christopher Petit

Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder [and] Miss Marple: 4:50 From Paddington [Videorecording] by John Davies

(show 1 more)

Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington [1987 TV movie] by Martyn Friend

Is abridged in

Bound to Talk: Murder on the Orient Express / Murder at the Vicarage / The A.B.C. Murders / 4.50 From Paddington [Abridged Audiobook] by Agatha Christie

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Swedish)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

4.50 from Paddington

Original title

Alternative titles

Murder, She Said

What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Rutherford Hall, England, UK

Important events

Related movies

Murder She Said (1961 | IMDb)

4.50 from Paddington (1987 | IMDb)

Agatha Christie Marple: 4.50 from Paddington (2004 | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Mrs. McGillicuddy panted along the platform in the wake of the porter carrying her suitcase.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Original title for the US publication was What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!, and a 1963 paperback edition used the title Murder, She Said.

Abridged edition: Please do not combine with the unabridge edition.

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

4.50 from Paddington

▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML:

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.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary