4:50 from Paddington

I finished reading What Mrs. Gillicuddy Saw! (it is also published under the name 4:50 from Paddington) by Agatha Christie.  The movie Murder She Said was based loosely on this book. I saw the movie last year. This book seven of the Miss Marple book series.

Warning: there is a little bit of violence.

In this book, a friend of Miss Marple named Mrs. Gullicully is on train to visit Miss Marple for a few days. It is nearly Christmas. She looks outside and sees another train slowly passing by her train. She sees a man strangling a woman and the woman is dead. She does report the murder, but there is no body. She tells Miss Marple and Miss Marple decides to investigate since the police think there was no murder that happened. Miss Marple asks a friend of hers to become a housekeeper of a family that owns a house near the train tracks. Lucy agrees and she does find the body. Then later on the family gets poisoned and one of them die. Then another dies by poison via pills.  Miss Marple does figure out who the killer is, and the motive behind the murders.

Differences between book and movie:

1. Miss Marple is the housekeeper and the one who sees the murder happen on the train.
2. The family name and manor name is changed to  Ackenthorpe.
3. Harold dies by shotgun, not pills as in the book.
4. One of the character’s name is changed from Alfred to Albert.

I loved this book. Now I’m going to listen to Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane by P.L. Travers.