Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
Series: Hercule Poirot #10
Published by Harper Collins, 4th June 2007 (first published 1st January 1934)
Genres: Mystery, crime, classics
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased (new)
Synopsis
Just after midnight, somewhere in the Balkans, the Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a massive snowdrift. This famous train is unusually busy for the time of year, but by morning there will be one less passenger. A man is found dead in his compartment, stabbed twelve times in the chest. And his door was locked from the inside!
Luckily Detective Hercule Poirot happened to be travelling on the train, and must now put his remarkable talents to the test. Undoubtedly, the murderer was among the passengers and with the snow preventing any escape, they are certainly still in their midst. The remaining passengers present a real puzzle to Poirot, with many different nationalities, backgrounds and stories. Can he sort out the liars and identify the murderer before he or she strikes again?
My thoughts
I can’t believe that it has taken me so long to read a Hercule Poirot novel! I have seen a number of episodes of the TV series featuring David Suchet and I did see the recent film adaptation of this book. So I was already familiar with Poirot himself and with the story of this particular book, but it was still intriguing to read.
I love Poirot and his subtle wry sense of humour and matter-of-fact revelations and comments. The way he puts all of the information together to present a full picture of the situation is really remarkable.
The “closed room” mystery trope is one that I really enjoy and Agatha Christie did it so well. Although I already knew the ending, it was so interesting to follow along with the development of the mystery through each character’s testimony and Poirot’s observations.
I will definitely be reading more of Poirot in the future, especially if I can get my hands on more of these beautiful editions.
My rating: 4/5