Did not guess the killer. My partner and  both formed elaborate theories and were dreadfully wrong

Elspeth McGillicuddy's claims of having witnessed a woman's murder on the train alongside her own are put down to day dreaming by the police, with no body found, and no other witnesses. Only Miss Marple believes her friend's story, and starts her gentle digging into this complex and deadly case.

I'm not sure what to make of this mystery. Miss Marple places herself as largely a background character due to her ailing health and old age; instead, establishing a trusted housekeeper as the sleuth. While Miss Marple's wit is amazing in narrowing down the secondary crime scene and the suspect's home, this seems to be where the sleuthing ends and much of the story becomes character studies and daily living. Further crimes are committed, but these don't seem to be actively investigated by Miss Marple or her "agent", with the story plodding along uninteruppted.

Another solid installment in the Marple series (although I wish there had been less Lucy and more Marple!). Brilliant atmosphere and vibes, a great mix of humour and darkness, and a clever and gripping plot all make for a great escapist read. As with most of these books, I didn't work out where things were heading and I was hit by that wonderful combination of an ending that I didn't predict and yet in retrospect is entirely obvious and the only one that would've made sense. My only real criticism of this one is the xenophobic undertones which unfortunately do crop up in Christie's works from time to time. This one wasn't horrendous, but made for slightly uncomfortable reading at times.