4.50 from Paddington

Elspeth McGillicuddy sees a woman being strangled on a train on December 20th. She tells the railway staff and the police but they are unwilling to pursue the matter until a body is found. Her friend Miss Marple gets on the case and finds the most likely spot where the murder took place. It is a section of the track near Rutherford Hall, the family home of the Crackenthorpe family. She asks Lucy Eyelesbarrow to take a job there as a home help. Lucy finds the body in a sarcophagus.

Luther Crackenthorpe = 73 years old, living off the income of his father's wealth but denied any access to the capital itself. He lives with his daughter Emma, and resents spending any money on any of his children (as they will inherit their grandfather's fortune when Luther dies). Luther's children are:

• Cedric is a painter living in Ibiza.
• Alfred is a small-time crook.
• Harold is a banker whose apparent success hides the fact he is almost bankrupt.
• Emma is approaching 40, is still single and looks after her father.
• Edith (nickname Edie) married Bryan Eastley, a fighter pilot in WW2, but (Edith) died leaving one son Alexander
• Edmund, the oldest son, was killed in the war (he may have married a Frenchwoman called Martine, who in turn may be the dead woman found in the sarcophagus . . .)

other characters:

• Mr Wimborne, the Crackenthorpe family lawyer
• Dr Quimper, the Crackenthorpe family doctor (who killed his estranged French wife on the train, because she refused to give him a divorce, which he wanted so he could marry Emma. He later poisoned Alfred and Harold)
• Craddock, detective investigating the crime with his colleague Bacon

Miss Marple pretends to have swallowed a fish bone, which she asks Dr Quimper to see to, ensuring that when Elspeth sees him thus, she'll recognize him as the man she saw on the train strangling the woman.