Rach's Reading Club

Murder on the Orient Express, originally published under the title
Murder in the Calais Coach, Agatha Christie, copyright 1934 (US)

Summary: Because I'd heard the title of the book so often, and there have been so many films portraying the story, I never bothered to read nor see it. Murder on the Orient Express is a wonderful story that promises a good, old-fashioned murder-mystery that's wrapped up neat as a package with a bow at the end by the brilliant detective, Hercule Poirot. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The setting is focused mainly on a single coach of a passenger train that is stuck in a snowbank on the train's tracks, forcing an interesting variety of characters to interact with one another, and one of them is murdered. Poirot is, of course, forced into his detective role to determine which, if any, of the people on the coach are the murderer. He interviews the suspects and interviews them again, so the reader gets to know them each as well as the Poirot. The murder seems impossible, and when the truth is finally exposed, the truth itself is remarkable.

This book is good for... lovers of the mystery genre, readers interested in stories taking place in the early 1930s Europe.

I especially liked... the characters. Christie is an expert at giving a perfect picture of each character, with their quirks and eccentricities. I especially liked the way their personality was shown through their words, voices, and subtle actions. As I believe was the norm during the time she wrote, Christie gives complete physical descriptions of the characters as the reader meets them. This threw me at first, but when I thought about the story, and the detective's POV, it made perfect sense to do so. Poirot wasn't a world-famous detective by accident. It seemed natural to read a photographic and auditory description of each character as they were introduced, because Poirot would be taking in all of those details as he met them as a matter of course. The characters are all richly created, and despite the number of suspects to keep track of, I didn't have any trouble keeping them straight.

I recommend this book because... It is a masterfully planned and written murder mystery. You expect to be taken through the twists and turns of an investigation which eventually leads to the truth of the matter, leaving the reader satisfied. This book fits the bill, and then some.