MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS | AGATHA CHRISTIE | BOOK REVIEW

 MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

Author: Agatha Christie

Publisher: Collins Crime Club

Age Range: 14+

Summary:

World-famous detective, Hercule Poirot, boards the Orient Express to London at night only for a passenger to be found dead the next morning. The train is stuck in a snowdrift at night and in the morning Samuel Ratchett, an American businessman, is found dead in his compartment. 12 stab wounds, a handkerchief with the initial H, a pipe cleaner, an open window, a flat match and a charred piece of paper with “member little Daisy Armstrong” written on it. And the murderer is still on board.

Review:

Agatha Christie definitely knows how to write a solid murder mystery. The ending of the book was so unexpected, it took me a while to actually process everything. Being the most famous novel by Agatha Christie, it has even been adapted into a film. 

It must be crazy to be a detective. You can encounter a case almost anywhere, even while you are on a journey of just 2-3 days. That's exactly what happens with Hercule Poirot while traveling on the Orient Express. 

There are a total of 15 passengers in the coach including Hercule himself. He boards the train at night and at dinner one of the passengers, Samuel Ratchett asks him for help because he was receiving death threats. Poirot declines. The next morning Ratchett is found dead in his compartment. Bouc, director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits and a friend of Poirot, informs him that the murderer is still aboard the train since there is no way to escape in the snow. The police cant arrive and Poirot is in charge.

After doing some digging into Ratchett's compartment, Poirot reaches the conclusion that Ratchett was actually Casseti, a criminal who had kidnapped and killed a toddler named Daisy Armstrong. He had escaped corruption and fled the country. But the question still remains — who murdered Ratchett? The passengers' alibi first come into question but later even their identities become an issue.

"They knew I had no immediate means of finding out the truth, and they did not believe that I should go into the matter unless my suspicions were aroused against one particular person"

~Avani Endait