Our November book is a fun, easy read – 4:50 From Paddington by Dame Agatha Christie. It was originally published as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw and features beloved detective Jane Marple.

4:50 is a workmanlike book that shows the structure of a basic Christie novel. However, Christie was also capable of upending the genre, as she does in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and in Murder on the Orient Express. Her book And Then There Were None is chilling in contrast to her more “cosy” mysteries.

Christie lived from 1890-1976. She’s the third most read author in the English Language, having written 66 books in addition to short story collections and a play. She is known as “The Queen of Crime.”

For more about her influence on modern crime novels, check out this article: “Genius or Hack?”