Title: Murder On The Orient Express
Author: Agatha Christie
Pages: 315
Summary: Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow passengers must be the murderer.
Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again….
Belle Rating: A
Bookworm Rating: A
Overall Rating: A
Target Audience: Young Adults – Adults
*Minor Spoilers Below* – may include plot details such as: important names or events
Story Notes:
L – I love Agatha Christie books and this is one of my personal favorites. There is a reason this is one of her better known books.
D – Lauren, here, introduced me to Poirot a couple years ago. We would watch the BBC version (curse you Netflix for taking my show!!) and this particular mystery had me guessing until the very end. The ending is definitely something you would not expect.
L – That is Agatha Christie’s specialty. If you read any of her novels you can count on being mislead and confused. This is one of her best examples. The story is complex and each of the characters is unique enough to make you suspect each of them in turn.
D – You will be blaming each of the characters in turn by the end of the book with all of the clues that Poirot reveals. It’s seriously mind boggling how good Agatha Christie is with this stuff. It intrigues and terrifies me what was going through that mind of hers when she worked up these stories…
L – Murder on the Orient express begins with Poirot boarding the train at the insistence of his good friend M. Bouc when he is unexpectedly called back to England. M. Bouc is the director of this particular express train and is more than willing to help his friend. The other passengers in the Stamboul-Calais car of the train seem very surprised to see Poirot there and a few of them even seem upset.
D – Poirot gets on the train at night. All of the first class compartments are surprisingly full, so he must share a car with a M. MacQueen the first night. The following day at lunch, Agatha Christie begins to introduce all the other passengers through Poirot’s eyes. He analyzes everything that goes on, because he’s a freakin awesome detective. As just about everyone departs from their meals, Ratchett comes up to Poirot telling him he fears for his life and wants his help. Now Poirot has been studying this man and knows that he looks pretty shady, so he declines even after Ratchett tries to bribe him with money.
L – Turns out that Ratchett really was in some trouble and he is murdered in the middle of the night, just as the train is stranded in the Balkan hills by a large snow storm. Poirot is then asked by his friend M. Bouc to help solve the murder. The police won’t be able to arrive until the track is cleared and he wants everyone to remain calm.
D – With the help of M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine, who also happened to be on the train, Poirot is able to deduce who the murderer is. Without any outside help…he’s fabulous…
L – The mystery is very grabbing and is full of all that fabulous stuff: false identities, mysterious people in the dark, murder, theft, revenge, and even a good amount of tricky clues.
D – Don’t forget sarcasm from the great detective.
L – That is one of Poirot’s best traits.
D – And his fabulous mustache. Nothing like the one that will be in the new movie…
L – Stupid mustache. Poirot is a Belgian gentleman solving a murder on a train, he’s not looking to bring justice to a lawless Western town with nothing but a colt revolver and his iron will. ( I am super excited for the movie though. I hope it’s good.)
D – Me too!
Writing Style:
L – Agatha Christie is the Queen of Mystery for a reason. She perfected the art of letting her readers know everything they needed to solve the murder while keeping them in the dark the entire time. Sometimes you can feel rather silly for not realising who did it the entire time.
D – Hehe I felt silly a lot when watching Poirot. There are also French words and phrases scattered about the book. I mean Poirot is Belgian after all, but it doesn’t hurt to look up what they mean if you’re not great with context clues.
L – Murder on the Orient Express is considered to be one of the greatest detective novels ever because of the way Dame Christie handles her characters. Each individual is unique and has plenty of depth. It adds a lot to the story to see them interacting with each other.
Weaknesses:
D – You fool there is no weaknesses! Mwahahaha!
L – Truth. It’s very difficult to find anything wrong with this book. It’s well planned out and interesting. If I had to nitpick I guess it would just be the fact that (as with most older novels) the language is a bit dated. But as someone who regularly indulges in Agatha Christie, Shakespeare, and Jules Verne, I really don’t have a problem with this.
D – I think there also could’ve been more of an ending, but that’s coming from someone who watched the show before reading the book. The show has more of a dramatic flare at the end which I think shows what Poirot thinks about this particular case. And even you, the reader, will struggle with how Poirot should handle the case.
Strengths:
L – This book really is planned out beautifully. You learn everything you need to know at the exact moment you need to know it and not a moment before.
D – Ahem..You fool this is Agatha Christie! This book is nothing but awesomeness!!
Final Thoughts:
L – I really recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something really good to read. I also highly recommend Agatha Christie’s other books. In particular, And Then There Were None, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Crooked House, and Murder at the Vicarage. (But really, Read Them All!)
D – Haha yes I am sure my bookshelf will start to fill with Agatha Christie books.
L – You should see mine. I appear to be trying to collect one from each printing. 😛
D – Well now you have more shelves to fill to the brim with books. Just don’t break them this time!
L – My last bookshelf didn’t break. I just bowed the shelves really badly.
D – A hope and a prayer was keeping those shelves up and alive.
L – Hmmm, I’d say that the books underneath were holding up each shelf…
D – Anywho…we will try to watch the movie coming out next month and make a post about it! We will tell you our thoughts…hopefully I can get past the bush on his face…
L – Stupid mustache (disgruntled sounds)
D – David Suchet was amazing…sigh…I need to purchase that tv series….
L – It’s a couple hundred dollars. (I’ve looked into it.)
D – *cries* nooooo!! Curse you Netflix!!!!
The Belle and The Bookworm 