4:50 from Paddington
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 13+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
A friend is believed when the police shrug, and an old woman will not let a murder go unanswered. That is the good heart of this book. Truth matters, and so does the dead stranger. The victim is a Catholic wife who would not divorce, and her husband kills her for it. The reservation: Miss Marple wishes the killer could hang.
For parents
Read aloud from 12, independent reading from 13. Three murders, one by strangling and two by poison, none gory. Ask why the wife refused a divorce and what marriage vows mean (CCC 1640). Ask whether Miss Marple is right to want the killer hanged, and what the Church now teaches (CCC 2267).