For an instant, the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy witnessed a murder. She saw the body crumple. Then the other train drew away. Everyone but Miss Jane Marple was willing to dismiss her friend's distraught report. Diligently studying train routes, timetables, and tracks, Miss Marple imagines where the body might be. Her detective genius includes playing the little-old-lady card and, ultimately, winning the challenge of wits.

"On the television and in this audiobook, recorded in 1994, Hickson simply IS the mild, elderly, deceptively parochial lady with piercing insight into human wrongdoing. She also manages to inhabit the other characters in this book beautifully, not so much by creating voices, as by variations in diction and speech rhythm. Her voice is old, yet strong, and her pacing is superb. Rarely have Christie's quiet humor and wry characterizations been so clearly voiced."

Agatha Christie (1890-1975), wrote more than 66 novels, numerous short stories and screenplays, and a series of romantic novels using the pen name of Mary Westmacott. Her play, The Mousetrap, has been running continuously since its premiere in 1952. According to her print publisher, Christie's books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in 44 foreign languages. The most widely published novelist of all time in any language, Christie is outsold only by The Bible and Shakespeare.