Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 1934
Genre: Mystery
Age: Adult 18+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was our book for this month's The Book Was Better Club. I've never read an Agatha Christie book before & I have yet to see the movie for this book. We'll be watching it on Thursday night during the meeting. I have to say that this book as far as a murder mystery was very different from the mysteries of today. Overall it wasn't a bad read & it was short. I also got the audio book & I will say it is a little bit hard to follow because the man reading has an accent (which is fitting but hard to listen too).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Characters:
The Inspector- Hercule Poirot
The Director- M. Bouc
The Conductor- Pierre Michel
The Doctor- Dr. Constantine
The Governess- Mary Debenham
Colonel Arbuthnot
The Secretary- Hector MacQueen
The Victim- M. Ratchett
The Italian- Antonio Foscarelli
The Valet- Edward Henry Masterman
The Salesman- Cyrus Hardman
Princess Dragomiroff
The Swedish Nurse- Greta Ohlsson
Obnoxious American- Mrs. Hubbard
The Maid- Hildegarde Schmidt
Count & Countess Andrenyi
Our story begins in Syria on a train platform & we are introduced to Poirot. From there the train crosses into Turkey & he arrives at the Tokatlian Hotel. Once at the hotel Poirot receives an urgent telegram asking him to return home because there has been a development in his case. It is then that he gets a seat on the Simplon Orient, the Orient Express.
The train is surprisingly full for that time of year & it is a miracle he is able to come aboard. It will take the train 3 days to cross Europe. On the first night Poirot is approached by a man named Ratchett, he has a new case for the detective but Poirot refuses to take it saying he has enough money to keep him happy & things to occupy his time already. It seems Ratchett is having threatening letters sent to him & he thinks he might be in danger. That night Poirot hears a scream in the middle of the night. The next morning the train has come to a stop as it has hit a snow drift & Ratchett has been murdered.
From there the investigation begins. The only clues they have are a few burnt matches, a pipe cleaner, a handkerchief, a half burnt scrap of paper, & a different story from everyone aboard. Poirot interviews all of the people on the train, he looks at the body, & he examines the passenger's luggage. After all of the evidence has been presented he makes his final conclusion in 2 parts. But which one is true?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Likes: This book was very short, less than 300 pages so it was a quick read.
The audiobook is also short less than 7 hours but the reader is speaking in a French accent which although appropriate is hard to follow in my opinion.
The story spaced out well & was presented in a straight forward way. Since I haven't read any of the other books in this Poirot series I'm guessing that they may all be set up in that fashion but I'm not sure.
I wasn't quite sure which of the conclusions was the true one until I stopped at the end to think about it.
I'm only giving it a 3 out of 5 star rating because it wasn't exactly my style of book but it wasn't a bad story either.
Dislikes: -
Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment