62. What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (1957)

 {also published as 4.50 from Paddington}

Dear Agatha,

You know, oftentimes when you read a lot of books, a lot of plots seem to get recycled.  "There is nothing new under the sun," Solomon said, and a lot of times it feels like the story you are reading you have read a hundred times before, and many of those times the author is unapologetic about it.  Nevertheless, I have never read any plot before like these two books I read this week.  This is amazing, Agatha.

One of the many things you do well, Agatha, is create likable, strong female characters.  Miss Marple, honestly, is not one of my favorites, but she didn't annoy me in this book, and I loved Lucy Eyelesbarrow.  Even old Mrs. McGillicuddy was pretty cute.

On another note, someone on Goodreads posted this in their review and it made me laugh out loud:

I always forget about that brief section in 4:50 from Paddington that feels like the beginning of the dreaded story problem: “if two trains are traveling…”

On a practical note, zero stars for the publisher of the edition I got, Pocket Books by Simon & Schuster.  There were numerous typos - once they called our Jane Miss MarBle! - and there were about half a dozen pages which were folded and bound in that way... strange and annoying!

I have missed you!

b.