#murder on the orient express review

[justforbooks]

Regarded as one of Agatha Christie’s greatest achievements, Murder on the Orient Express was first published as a novel in 1934.

The very first publication of the story was in a six-instalment serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post in 1933 in the US, under the title, Murder on the Calais Coach.

The book is dedicated "To M.E.L.M. Arpachiyah, 1933" – Agatha Christie’s second husband, Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan.

It’s likely that the story was drafted when Christie was on an archaeological dig with Max in Arpachiyah, Iraq, although The Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul has an Agatha Christie Room where, it claims, she wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

The story was partly inspired by the Lindbergh case; a shocking real-life case following the kidnapping of international hero, Charles Lindbergh’s, 20-month old son who was held for a $50,000 ransom. The ransom was paid, but unfortunately Lindbergh’s son was never returned.

The story was also inspired partly by an incident in 1929 when the Orient Express was trapped in a blizzard in Çerkezköy, Turkey, where it was marooned for six days! Two years later Christie was involved in a similar scenario when she was travelling on the Orient Express and the train got stuck for a period of time due to heavy rainfall and flooding, which washed part of the track away!

Christie first travelled on the Orient Express in 1928 which also happened to be her first solo trip abroad. This was to become the first of many trips on the train.

Agatha Christie’s notable attention to detail is evident throughout the novel. While writing it, she checked cabin layouts, door handles and light switches, noting down their positions. These crucial details would lead Poirot to solve the case.

The dust jacket blurb on the first edition reads: ‘Murder on the Orient Express must rank as one of the most ingenious stories ever devised.’

In 1974 the book was adapted for the big screen. Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, the film was the 11th highest grossing film of the year.

At the age of 84, Agatha Christie made her last public appearance at the royal premiere of the film in London.

In 2015 Murder on the Orient Express was ranked as the second World’s Favourite Christie, which ranked And Then There Were None in the top spot and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in third place.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[azazel-dreams]

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[threecheersforinking]

Hi......If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Hey, thanks for the ask! I don't mind at all, I love talking about my favorite things!

I actually have a post up about my top 10 favorite anime, but I don't talk much about those other types of media on this blog, so I'll just give one top favorite from each and why I like it so much.

Favorite manga: 20th Century Boys

I love Naoki Urasawa and this series is just so unique, creative, and compelling. I read each volume back to back without reading anything in between because I was so invested. it's one of the only longer form manga series I own in its entirety.

Favorite book: Murder on the Orient Express

I really love mystery novels in general but especially Agatha Christie's. For an author whose works came out literally a century ago, in my opinion she has a surprisingly modern perspective on crime, violence, and murder, and it's why so many people have tried to emulate her style in the past 100 years.

Favorite movie: When Harry Met Sally

Best rom com ever (in my opinion), flawless friends to lovers execution, I can watch it 100 times and not get sick of it. Just an excellent movie and makes me happy every time.

Favorite TV series: Twenty Five Twenty One

This show is absolutely gut wrenching, but it got me through a really difficult time in my life and truly changed my perspective on love and romance. It will always be extremely important to me.

Thanks for asking that, I hope you all got to know a little more about me through this because I normally only ever talk about anime!

Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking

[lindrill]

Murder on the Orient Express

This was yet another book my boyfriend asked me to read. Mainly because I never had the mystery spoiled for me at all, I barely knew about the story.

I had a lot of fun reading this book! I even pulled out a notepad as I found myself trying to solve this mystery too.

(This is spoiler free)

Agatha Christie is a well known author for her murder mysteries. This was the first of all her books I read!

It felt like a slow start, but I understood why as I read. I knew she was building up details for what was to come. I do always struggle if multiple characters come into play right at the beginning, I was reading a lot of perspectives from lots of characters. It does continue like this a bit as well, but the main perspective is from the detectives point of view, Hercule Poirot. I did get used to the amount of people and started to get an idea of who was who.

There are parts of the book set up as if written down on notes so if you want you can write down with it coming up with your own theories. I found this super fun and interactive!

...And no I did not figure out the mystery. But it was still fun nevertheless :P

[gcantread]

October 2024 reads

[loved liked ok nope dnf bookclub*]

A Dark and Drowning Tide • The City in Glass • We'll Prescribe You a Cat • Five Broken Blades • The Professor • The Wood at Midwinter • Murder on the Orient Express*

October was a slooooooow reading month for me! I traveled, I hosted, I did irl stuff generally, but I didn't make much of a dent in my TBR. Oh well! One thing about living in this frozen mountain wasteland is that as soon as the weather turns, it's Reading Season. Fingers crossed I'll have more time to read in November.

A Dark and Drowning Tide ★★★☆☆ - Eh. It was fine. Nothing special, but fine. I can now definitively say that I've given Allison Saft's work a fair chance and it's not quiiiiiite my thing.

The City in Glass ★★★★1/2 - Nghi Vo never flops!! I was stoked about this new release and I was right to be. I didn't looooove the ending, but I loved the prose and really enjoyed the angel/demon "fucked up Good Omens" dynamic at the story's core.

We'll Prescribe You a Cat ★★★★☆ - This one is just fun. If you like cats even a little bit, it's a silly sweet time. I love reading works translated from Japanese/set in Japan in general for the way the cultural differences translate.

Five Broken Blades ★★★★☆ - Listen, I am Not Immune to books hyped by booktok/booktube. I 100% get the criticism of this one, but I still had a blast reading it. There are so many characters and they're all soooooo delightfully dumb in such fun ways. Also Aeri and Royo are like 80% jalice-coded and we all know I'm EXTRA not immune to that

The Professor ★★1/2☆☆ - Read this because I'm slowly making my way through the entire Brontë canon, and oof. Boy does this read like a shitty first draft of Villette (where's the beef??) I will not be inflicting this one on Bella's Book Club. That said, I had a great time laughing at the virulent Victorian xenophobia as usual (we get it, Charlotte, you hated your French boss.)

The Wood at Midwinter ★★★☆☆ - Susanna Clarke is another of those authors whose grocery lists I would treasure. This little snippet was fun in both a "picture book for adults" way and in a "Please elaborate on that" "No" way. ily Bear Jesus

Murder on the Orient Express ★★★☆☆ - A reread for Bella's Book Club's Detectober! It was fun to reread while already knowing the twist this time around.

DNFs: None, but I'm starting to stall out on The Wise Man's Fear because I suspect I'm gonna dislike the second half. Go back to the universityyyyyy I'm booooored 😞

October superlatives

Next up:

I'm currently reading my ARC of Sundown in San Ojuela, and so far it's truly the perfect "October into November" book. I'm also gonna keep on trucking through The Wise Man's Fear. In more exciting news, I get closer every SECOND to cracking open my beautiful shiny copy of Absolution—I can't wait!! I've been informed that November is The Scorpio Races month, and that one's been on my tbr since @catja recced it for BBC summer reading, so I'd love to pick that one up. Other than that, I'd just like to get to everything I didn't get to this month! (In addition to my reread of Wuthering Heights for @bellasbookclub Brontë November, of course. I'd never miss Wutherin' Time.)

previous months:

july august september

[raiquen]

Book Review: Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie

My favorite quote of the book:

– [...] It was like coming across a wild animal. – But he has the most respectable aspect... – Precisément! The body... The cage.. is truly respectable, but the wild animal lurks behind the bars.

My Full Review:

Having seen the 2017 adaptation, I'm fascinated by the different tones the author and the director give to the same story. Even Hercule Poirot, our cherised belgium detective, ends up having two very different personalities and morale: Book Poirot is a little more inclined to indulge in justice by one's hand, shielding the culprit from consecuences, while Movie Poirot is the unyielding spirit of righteous justice, impotent to enact it.

The mystery and the key details are esentially the same, but the movie and the book conduct the investigation in unique ways, the first having a thorough and more stereotypical "detective looking around" kind of search and register, while the book consists esentially of a series of interviews, with some witnesses going twice through interrogation when new information is revealed.

The whole cast of characters and suspects is endearing and quite charming, but it's so numerous it ends up not being explored very deeply, recurring to common class and nationality stereotypes of the time.

Despite already knowing the story and the ending, I read the novel in two days, Agatha Christie's books are very welcoming and friendly.

My Other 2024 Readings.

[coffeebookslovegt]

Creía que Poirot era inmune a la fiebre del amor. Una vez estuve enfermo de eso. Me dejo con suficiente arrepentimiento para toda la vida.

[aspiringwriter22]

Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie | A Book Review

Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie | A Book Review #BookReview #MysteryThriller

Title: Murder on the Orient Express Author: Agatha Christie Genre: Mystery Thriller About the book: It’s the tenth book in the Hercule Poirot series that follows him as he investigates a murder on the train. Just after midnight, the Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is dead, stabbed a dozen times with the door to his compartment…

[supitsgdo]

Book review: Agatha Christie

Rating:

Murder on The Orient Express - 4⭐️

The ABC Murders - 3⭐️

Evil Under The Sun - 3⭐️

Murder in Mesopotamia - 3⭐️

When I first read one book from Agatha Christie (Murder on The Orient Express) I was surprised… What have I been missing!? I loved the story (and no, I haven't seen the movie), and the way it kept me hooked to the book. I usually read a book to switch off from the world and my brain, and it was interesting to see that the same didn't happen with this one. My mind was constantly working to figure out who the killer was, taking everything the detective was saying, and analysing it at the same time as him. I'm beginning to understand the charm of mistery books.

After a lot of months I decided to read more about Poirot’s adventures.

These books are short and a good choice for taking on vacation. They tell us about the adventures of Hercule Poirot, a detective trying to uncover which suspects are guilty. I chose them randomly but wasn't surprised really, they are classic mysteries. The stories themselves aren't what you’d call gratifying plot wise, although they are indeed clever, but I enjoyed the reading while trying to discover who the suspect was myself.

The three of them are different from each one, not only in the way the crimes were committed (because that obviously is different) but from the perspective of who tells the story. The ABC Murders is from the perspective of Captain Hastings, a great friend of Poirot, who's also helping solve the case; Evil Under The Sun is from Poirot's perspective; and Murder in Mesopotamia is from the perspective of a Nurse who was related to the case. Because of these differences and different personalities and writing styles, it was a good change from one book to the other.

[moviewarfare]

A “QUICK!” Review of “A Haunting in Venice (2023)”

I feel like I am one of the few people who enjoy Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Poirot adaptation, despite the flaws. A Haunting in Venice is the 3rd entry and it has none of the flaws of the previous 2. The cast is much smaller, allowing for more focus on the characters and allowing the audience to remember their names. It is also shorter with a runtime of 100 minutes compared to the roughly 2 hours of previous movies. This results in a way better-paced and tighter movie.

The one unique aspect of this story is how it blends horror into a detective story. Hercule is dealing with a case involving the supernatural and this results in some weird things he sees and hears. The film has some great jump scares that work well. This is no doubt that this is the best in the trilogy with a unique premise and an engaging case that will keep your eyes peeled.

For more reviews like this visit:

https://moviewarfarereviews.blogspot.com/

[darkeraven22]

FOX Murder On The Orient Express 2017 Movie Review Part 5

Nine Degrees Of Ratchet Connections…So we are just about there. We stop just as a pissed off Poirot is about to wrap up the case. And tell us everyone done did it. So he talks to the Count And Countess. Aka the haters of paparazzi. The Countess? Has the drug used to drug Ratchet. And a ton of psychological trauma. Why? She’s in actuality related to the Armstrongs. Sister of the dead wife. Ugh.…

[jordyvix]

A HAUNTING IN VENICE: Séances, Ghosts, and Murder!

An expert detective must come out of retirement when a Halloween soiree ends in murder. The third in the film series based on Agatha Christie’s novels, A Haunting in Venice is a throwback murder mystery that offers some new tricks to freshen up the franchise while adding some atmospheric haunts in time for Halloween. Now living peacefully in Venice, famed former detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth…

[azazel-dreams]

Murder on the Orient Express

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤

[noeljpenaflor]

This Murder On The Orient Express (2017) Review Will Train Your Cat To Speak! (LINK Below)

http://hub.me/amPuQ

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy 49th Birthday to Academy Award Winning, BAFTA Winning, Emmy Nominated, Golden Globe Nominated, SAG Award Nominated actress Penélope Cruz! ^__^

[lebakasmadl]

Murder on the Orient Express

by Agatha Christie

a book review

(!Spoilers! duh)

Last week I read “Murder on the Orient Express”. The language used is quite simple and straight forward, not much energy is wasted on describing meaningless details. This in itself is not a big deal, however it is quite telling if a detail is mentioned, because then you rightfully would assume that it is a puzzle piece necessary to solve the murder. This does make it much more obvious and less fun to solve the mystery (which wasn’t rly possible anyway but oh well).

Let’s set the scene:

The Orient Express is filled to the brim with passengers during a cold winter night. An intense snow storm forces the train to stop dead in its tracks. In the morning, the train still not having moved, a body is discovered. Who could have done it? Fortunately Hercule Poirot, a skilled detective, is also on board and gets asked to take the case.

Here arises the first problem for me:

HERCULE POIROT

(I will admit, that this was the first book of Poirot I have ever read, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him as a character)

I don’t want to lie, I did expect kind of a french Sherlock Holmes (Omg the French don’t get me started on that) However it is not exactly what Poirot is. He didn’t rly impress with crazy combination or observation skills. To me it felt as tho he was just quite good at guessing and got lucky a lot? Like A LOT. Plus he admitted that himself? Personally I would have preferred to look into his mind a little more, it would have made the whole thing much more interesting. It was a guessing game, however reading about how he concluded what to guess might have been more entertaining, especially considering that the reader was not privy to crucial information.

The only thing rly making him stand out knowledgewise was the trick that made the writing on the letter reappear. However that whole thing drove me up a tree anyway, since it was just a tad bit too much luck for my taste that he was able to recover a full name, which happened to be the main clue for why the victim was murdered. Also also him assuming Mr. Ratchetts real identity from just the name on the letter did not feel coherent to me. Like oh this man has a weird vibe to him and there is the name of a murdered girl on a letter in his room, he HAS TO BE a serial child killer. (???)

Sexism and weird nationality stuff?

When the body is discovered with 12 stab wounds to some men on the train the case seems to be nearly solved. It must have been a woman! Obviously only women get emotional enough to murder someone with more stabs than necessary. Men no emotion, men never emotion, emotion girly stuff. Except if u are italian than it might have been u since it “fits your southern temper”??? But do not worry, everyone in this book gets their fair share of prejudice and stereotype! I do understand it was a different time when the book was released, but unfortunately these parts aged like milk.

Who did it?

Sooo huge SPOILER: It was everyone on the train!

Midway thru the book I did think to myself, well what if it was everyone? Wouldn’t that be cool? It wouldn’t. I dismissed that thought since I decided it would be too lazy from a writers perspective. Once everyone committed the crime, no one did. All of a sudden it doesn’t matter who was where at what time and what they saw or heard. It stops being about collecting clues and simply becomes about mashing a bunch of people together in the most random guessing game to give all of them the same goal. As a result the final revelation was quiet unsatisfactory.

The Plan

Twelve people had all decided to kill a man, bc he was the murderer of a little girl, Daisy Armstrong, which they all were connected to. (Thank god Poirot happened to know so much about that case that happened years ago) The connection usually being that they had previously worked for the family of the girl or being directly related to her. This is a point I personally do find weird. Some had quite believable motives, while it seemed that others went along bc Daisy was kind of a cute child? That wouldnt rly be enough for me but go off Agatha.

Their plan was pretty complicated. They would one by one sneak into the victims room and every person would stab him ONE time. That way, they claim, it “would not be possible to tell who’s strike was the actual final blow that killed him” (humbug). Then they made up a whole spiel about a woman in a red kimono and a guy dressed up as a train conductor, planted fake clues and gave each other alibis.

Of course it was in their best interest to keep the wagon to themselves. No outsiders, no witnesses. For that reason they paid for an compartment in the train, knowing they didn’t actually have another person to fill it with. If Poirot and his homie would not have come along, the wagon would have only carried twelve murderers and one victim. Meaning that this crazy game of dressing up would have been completely unnecessary??? They even stated that they practiced the whole thing on their way east, so that they could go through with it on the way back. But WHY this complicated plan, if they had actually planned not to be sharing the wagon? It seems to be too elaborate for them to have made it up on the spot, once they realized they would not be traveling alone. Plus another question that bothers me: Bc there were no more first class compartments left, Poirot actually shared a second class one with one of the killers (McQueen) for the first nights. How did they plan to avoid that? It could have been anyone in that second class room and they only got lucky bc Bouc moved to the other wagon once it became possible, so that Poirot could sleep in a First class compartment. What would they have done, if someone would have just stayed with Mr. McQueen in his bunk bed for the whole ride???

Conclusion

Why is this considered a classic?

Unfortunately I have to admit to not rly having liked this book so I can not recommend it. However if u haven’t read it yet, maybe go do so just so that we can have a chat about it. If u have already read it: Feel free to answer my questions and/or tell me about your opinion. I’ll be waiting.

All in all one round match out of twelve stab wounds