Agatha Christie Reviews
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Murder On The Orient Express
Of all Christie's works, this is my favorite. Hercule Poirot at the top of his form, on a snow-bound luxury train full of suspicious characters.
During the second night's run, Samuel Ratchett, alias the vicious kidnaper Cassetti, is stabbed to death. It would seem that one of the other passengers in the Calais coach must be the murderer. But is that really the case? Aside from the dead man's secretary and valet, no one else has a connection with him. And those two have water-tight alibis, although such alibis are often suspicious.
This is her most cerebral detective novel. Almost all the action takes place within two cars of the luxurious Orient Express. There are no outside distractions, no running hither and yon, no checking up on the passengers' credentials. Claustrophobes, beware!
Certainly there are clues, but are they real or fake? It isn't so easy to tell, especially with Dame Agatha setting them up. And unlike The Mysterious Affair At Styles, the clues are placed with a light hand.
Much of the book is centered on the interrogations of the passengers. They seem to be telling the truth, but are any of them holding a little something back? Naturally they are; that's par for the course in any mystery novel.
The question, as always, is whether what they're concealing has anything to do with the murder of the abominable Ratchett. The answers can be quite surprising.
This is one Christie where, after a certain point, the question of "whodunnit" will become obvious before Poirot's explanation. That doesn't matter so much.
What matters is how she takes a perfectly outrageous plot and makes it seem almost plausible. Working this out must have given her a real headache, especially as there is more than one solution. There's no way to explain that without spoiling it, so you'll just have to read it for yourself. Armchair detection at its best!
During the second night's run, Samuel Ratchett, alias the vicious kidnaper Cassetti, is stabbed to death. It would seem that one of the other passengers in the Calais coach must be the murderer. But is that really the case? Aside from the dead man's secretary and valet, no one else has a connection with him. And those two have water-tight alibis, although such alibis are often suspicious.
This is her most cerebral detective novel. Almost all the action takes place within two cars of the luxurious Orient Express. There are no outside distractions, no running hither and yon, no checking up on the passengers' credentials. Claustrophobes, beware!
Certainly there are clues, but are they real or fake? It isn't so easy to tell, especially with Dame Agatha setting them up. And unlike The Mysterious Affair At Styles, the clues are placed with a light hand.
Much of the book is centered on the interrogations of the passengers. They seem to be telling the truth, but are any of them holding a little something back? Naturally they are; that's par for the course in any mystery novel.
The question, as always, is whether what they're concealing has anything to do with the murder of the abominable Ratchett. The answers can be quite surprising.
This is one Christie where, after a certain point, the question of "whodunnit" will become obvious before Poirot's explanation. That doesn't matter so much.
What matters is how she takes a perfectly outrageous plot and makes it seem almost plausible. Working this out must have given her a real headache, especially as there is more than one solution. There's no way to explain that without spoiling it, so you'll just have to read it for yourself. Armchair detection at its best!
posted by Nightowl, 5:55 PM
