Book Review - 4:50 to Paddington by Agatha Christie

# 9
Title: 4:50 to Paddington
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery

Challenges: Winter Reading Challenge 2009, TBR Challenge 2009 , A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 2009 Audiobook Challenge, 20 Books in 2009, Pages Read Challenge 2009, Agatha Christie Challenge 2009, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge, Numbers Challenge

Rating: 4/5
No. of Pages: Audio (320)
Published: Originally 1957 (Audio 2005)

From the back:
Elspeth McGillicuddy is down from Scotland for a holiday and boards the 4:50 train from Paddington station to visit her friend Miss Marple. During the journey, another train pulls alongside, and through the window Mrs. McGillicuddy witnesses a tall, dark man strangling a blonde woman. She reports what she has seen, yet no one takes any notice. There is no report of any murder, no dead woman found on any train, and the police have no record of any persons reported missing that match the descripton given by Mrs. McGillicuddy. Only Miss Marple believes her account, and realizing that the body must have been thrown off the train, with the help of maps and train timetables she pinpoints the exact spot where the body must be. With the help of her young friend Lucy Eylelesbarrow, she goes about the tricky task of uncovering a murder – and a cunning murder…….

Mine:
Mrs. McGillicuddy sees a murder – but no one wants to believe her , but her good friend Miss Marple does. Now all she has to do is solve the crime, since the police won’t believe them. She enlists her friends Lucy Elylelesbarrow to check out the family. Who could be the guilty one, the family of dark horses all have a secret to hide.

Book Review - Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

#8
Title: Murder in Mesopotamia
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery

Challenges: Winter Reading Challenge 2009, TBR *Lite* Challenge 2009 (completed), A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Support Your Local Library, 2009 Audiobook Challenge, 20 Books in 2009, Pages Read Challenge 2009, Agatha Christie Challenge 2009, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge

Rating: 4/5
No. of Pages: Audio (352)
Published: Orignally 1936 (2001)

From the back:
Nurse Amy Leatheran is recruited to care for th frightened wife of an American archeologists at an excavation in the Iraqi desert. Are the wife’s fears mere hallucinations? When she is found bludgeoned to death, her paranoia proves, too late, fully justified. Famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, nearby on another mission, gets involved and realizes that every member of the team could be a suspect. Can Poirot stop the murder before he or she strikes again?

Mine:
Nurse Leatheran is brought in to take care of the wife who is fearful for her life. She keeps getting threatening letters telling her that she can not be with another man. She thought when she left America that she was safe, but the letters catch up to her in Iraq. One afternoon she is murdered and Poirot is brought in to help solve the crime.

It seems that every member of the excavation is a suspect, but who did really do it. Is it a crime of passion? We must understand that she was previously married and thought that her previous controlling husband was dead – but was he?

Poirot to the rescue to prove that the current husband is truly the previous husband and is a very jealous fool and does in fact kill his wife.

Book Review - A Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark & Carole Higgins Clark

#6
Title: A Christmas Thief

Author: Mary Higgins Clark/Carole Higgins Clark

Genre: Suspense

Challenges: Winter Holiday Reading Challenge, Winter Reading Challenge 2009, A to Z Reading Challenge, 2009 Audiobook Challenge, 20 Books in 2009, 2009 Second Chances, Pages Read Challenge 2009, Read Your Own Books Challenge 2009, To be Continued…Challenge, Books Around the States Challenge, 101 Books in 1001 Days Challenge

Rating: 5/5
No. of Pages: 336 (Audio)
Published: 2006

From the back:
The folks who picked a beautiful eighty-foot blue spruce from Stowe, Vermont, to be Rockefeller Center's famous Christmas tree don't have a clue that Packy Noonan, a scam artist just released from prison, hid priceless diamonds in it more than twelve years ago. But when Packy learns that his special tree will be heading to New York City the next morning, he knows he has to act fast.
What Packy does not know is that Alvirah, everyone's favorite lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and savvy private investigator Regan Reilly are visiting Stowe with their friend Opal, who lost all her lottery winnings in Packy's scam. And just when they're supposed to head home, they learn that the tree is missing . . . and that Opal has disappeared.

Mine:
Alvirah is in the thick of it again, when she takes her friend Opal on their getaway weekend in Stowe Vermont. Little do they know that Packy who swindled Opal of her Lottery Winnings is in the area also, trying to gain the possession of his diamond that he hid over 13 years ago. This is his stockpile of loot that was left over from his scheme.

When Opal goes missing on an early morning cross-country ski run – Alvirah does everything she can to find her and along the way finds the diamond the Rockerfeller tree and Packy and his band of merrymen.

Winter Reading Challenge 2009

December 21, 2008 - March 20, 2009

Robin from My Two Blessings. is hosting the Winter Reading Challenge.

Robin writes:
December 21st marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. As the days grow shorter and colder, the nights longer, it is a perfect time to curl up by the fire with a hot cup of tea and a good book. I have so many books in my To Be Read pile that I decided to continue on with a seasonal challenge.

The rules are flexible:
1. Choose any number of books you would like to read and post them on your blog.
2. Books may be fiction and/or nonfiction including e-books and audiobooks
3. Books may overlap with other challenges.

To sign up, visit the post about the challenge and use Mr. Linky.