What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!

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

Premise/plot: Poor Mrs. McGillicuddy! She witnesses a crime when she's on a train--the crime takes place on a passing train--and NO ONE believes her. No one but Miss Marple that is! Miss Marple knows her friend did not imagine a man strangling a woman. Since the police aren't going to bother with an investigation, it's up to her and her friends. Miss Marple hires a woman--Lucy Eyelesbarrow--to do the job. Lucy gets hired on at an estate--the nearest estate to where Miss Marple thinks the body might have been thrown off the train--and in her spire time Lucy will hunt for the body. It doesn't take her long--not really, not all show more things considered. What takes time is identifying the woman. Who was she? What was she doing in England? Is she in any way connected to the family or the estate? Could Lucy be living with a murderer?

My thoughts: I love, love, love this murder mystery. The murder occurs BEFORE Christmas but most of the book occurs in January or thereabouts. Lucy is working for a very eccentric, quirky family. Some of these family members are quite memorable, almost delightful. Miss Marple is staying nearby and posing as Lucy's aunt.

This is a well-written mystery novel that is fun to read and reread. (Though to be honest you should let a few years go by so that the details get a bit fuzzy in between readings.)

Quotes:

"Well," she said, "it looks as though you were right." She produced her findings and gave the details of their discovery. "Perhaps one ought not to feel so," she said, "but it is rather gratifying to form a theory and get proof that it is correct!" (39)

"At a certain stage one is inclined to think everyone knows a little more than they are willing to tell you." (81)

"If you have not committed a murder, it naturally annoys you if it seems someone thinks that you have," said Inspector Craddock mildly. (129)

"The truth is people are an extraordinary mixture of heroism and cowardice." (144) show less

While traveling by train to visit an old friend, Mrs. McGillicuddy is distressed to witness the murder of a woman on a train traveling parallel to hers. The railway officials don’t seem to take her seriously, but her old friend, Miss Marple, does. In the absence of news reports of the discovery of a body, Miss Marple sets out on a hunt. She engages a young paragon, Lucy Eylesbarrow, to take a temporary domestic position in a household near the site where the body must have been dumped. But why hasn’t the murdered woman been reported missing? Who was she, and what is her connection to this place?

This is one of my favorite Christies. I love mysteries involving trains, and I love the plot twist of a witness to a murder with a missing show more corpse. I like that Christie doesn’t ask her readers to suspend their disbelief in Miss Marple’s stamina by bringing in the young and intelligent Lucy to do all the physical investigation while Miss Marple puts her brain to work. And the dramatic ending is just perfect. show less

Ah Christie, you cunning minx you. I knew my earlier guess had low odds for being right, but I never saw that coming. I probably should have given the book a higher rating, but it started off slow and frankly, I don't feel confident yet that Christie didn't pull a rabbit out of her hat here. I need to let the story sit with me for awhile, and I may adjust the rating 1/2 star later.

I say it started off slow, but that's not really the case; it's much more about what happens when an original idea becomes over-used. Witnessing a murder taking place in a passing train was likely original - or at least fresh - when Christie used it, but 60 years later it feels trite. I'm also impatient with the idea of dismissing people because of their age.
show more
Once Lucy Eyelesbarrow arrived on the scene though, things started to pick up. From that point I was pretty well glued to the pages, getting lost in the setting and the characters. And apparently allowing myself to become completely seduced by Christie's red herring. For the record, I think my ending would have been much more twisted. show less

When Mrs. Elspeth McGillicuddy takes the train from London to Brackhampton, her train briefly runs along another train going in the same direction and witnesses a murder. But when no body is found either on the train or on the tracks, everyone presumes that she must have imagined it. Everyone, of course, but Mrs. McGillicuddy's dear friend, Miss Jane Marple.

I really enjoyed this Miss Marple mystery. The character names are fabulous (seriously, Elspeth McGillicuddy is perfection as a name), the mystery is well-crafted, the red herrings expertly placed, and each of the characters fantastically well-drawn. I enjoyed the element of Miss Marple using a younger woman as her eyes and legs on the scene, particularly as Lucy Eyelesbarrow is a show more lovely character to spend time with. Definitely recommended. show less

This is one of those Marple novels where she's almost a guest star. Fun, mainly because the entire premise is initially nightmarish enough to be a set up for a Hitchcock or Argento film. Obviously it doesn't go in that direction. Lots of leering, creepy, male characters interact with Marple's intrepid soldier in the field -Lucy Eyelesbarrow, as she searches for the body of a strangled woman. And she can cook too! Not in love with the punchline, but it's an engaging ride.

Brief Christie, with a unusually unsatisfying resolution. In general, I am tolerant of bank-shot plots to enable the surprise twist. Here, it felt implausible. I can imagine Raymond Chandler fuming in frustration...

When Mrs. McGillicuddy arrived at Jane Marple’s house for a visit, she has an extraordinary tale to tell – she witnessed a murder! During her trip, another train ran parallel to her own and when a window shade suddenly went up, she saw a man strangling a woman. She immediately reported events to the train personnel and to the police. The problem is, no body turns up in the next several days, nor is anyone reported missing. It’s up to Miss Marple to figure out what transpired.

I enjoyed this mystery because it showcased Miss Marple’s deductive reasoning more than other novels I’ve read. She doesn’t just have to account for human behavior, at which she is an admitted expert. She has to figure out where that body could have show more gone. After a couple trips via the same train, she deduces the body must be at Rutherford Hall. She enlists the help of Lucy Eyelesbarrow, a professional cook and housekeeper, to work at Rutherford Hall and find the body. Once found, the mystery turns toward possible suspects – all members of the Crackenthorpe family: 74-year-old Luther, his unsavory sons Harold, Cedric & Alfred, daughter Emma, dead daughter Edith’s husband Bryan. When one of the family ends up dead, Inspector Craddock suspects money as the motive. Luther is sitting on a fortune that he can’t touch and will pass to his children once he dies. But, what did the dead woman have to do with any of it?

Craddock is Marple’s godson, so their interactions added some personal connections to the story. I really liked Lucy as well and wouldn’t mind seeing her pop up in another story. The ultimate conclusion was satisfying. Another solid mystery from Christie. show less