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A review by eesh25
4:50 from Paddington: A Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie
3.0
3.25 Stars
My third Agatha Christie novel, and not one of her more well-known ones. And while I still liked it, I didn't love it.
The premise is that a woman on a train sees someone get murdered on another train that's briefly going parallel to hers. She doesn't see the killer's face though. And when she goes to report the murder, no one quite believes her. Except for her friend Miss Marple, an old lady who, given the name of the series, has solved a fair amount of cases. And the rest of the novel is Miss Marple trying to find the identity of the murderer and the murdered.
Only... That's not quite what happens. Miss Marple is old and unable to move around much. So most of the actual investigating is done by other people, namely Lucy Eyelesbarrow and Inspector Craddock. Miss Marple herself is featured in less than half of her own book!
That was my biggest issue with the book, I think. I like both Lucy and Craddock, and I found the members of the family in Rutherford Hall, the suspects, to be interesting enough. But there needed to be something more. Miss Marple is supposed to be very clever, as is alluded to several times, and we see that she really is in the way she solves the crime. But we don't see enough since she's barely there. And the book just didn't build up the suspense and tension that I've seen in Christie's other novels.
That said, I still enjoyed the read. The writing was great, of course, and the author gave us a good mystery with just enough clues to make you wonder how you didn't figure it out on your own. And one of the author's ways of deflecting was clever. And the book was fun... ish.
See, that's the problem. There's nothing all that wrong with the book, and there are many positives to find. But they could all be better and, because of that, this makes for a somewhat lukewarm read. I was even, for some reason, a tad disappointed by who the killer turned out to be. I'm hoping I'll have better luck with my next Agatha Christie novel, which is The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Though I'll be coming back to Miss Marple very soon. Starting with the first book, perhaps.
My third Agatha Christie novel, and not one of her more well-known ones. And while I still liked it, I didn't love it.
The premise is that a woman on a train sees someone get murdered on another train that's briefly going parallel to hers. She doesn't see the killer's face though. And when she goes to report the murder, no one quite believes her. Except for her friend Miss Marple, an old lady who, given the name of the series, has solved a fair amount of cases. And the rest of the novel is Miss Marple trying to find the identity of the murderer and the murdered.
Only... That's not quite what happens. Miss Marple is old and unable to move around much. So most of the actual investigating is done by other people, namely Lucy Eyelesbarrow and Inspector Craddock. Miss Marple herself is featured in less than half of her own book!
That was my biggest issue with the book, I think. I like both Lucy and Craddock, and I found the members of the family in Rutherford Hall, the suspects, to be interesting enough. But there needed to be something more. Miss Marple is supposed to be very clever, as is alluded to several times, and we see that she really is in the way she solves the crime. But we don't see enough since she's barely there. And the book just didn't build up the suspense and tension that I've seen in Christie's other novels.
That said, I still enjoyed the read. The writing was great, of course, and the author gave us a good mystery with just enough clues to make you wonder how you didn't figure it out on your own. And one of the author's ways of deflecting was clever. And the book was fun... ish.
See, that's the problem. There's nothing all that wrong with the book, and there are many positives to find. But they could all be better and, because of that, this makes for a somewhat lukewarm read. I was even, for some reason, a tad disappointed by who the killer turned out to be. I'm hoping I'll have better luck with my next Agatha Christie novel, which is The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Though I'll be coming back to Miss Marple very soon. Starting with the first book, perhaps.