Murder on the Orient Express

I would say that Murder on the Orient Express is Christie’s most well known work, but she’s so popular that that might not be true. It’s certainly in the top 5, especially in 2020 thanks to the movie that came out a few years ago. This was my first Christie novel and I had a great time reading it; it was one of the most fun times I had reading a book, and I even knew the ending coming into it!

Murder on the Orient Express is about a murder that takes place, weirdly enough, on the Orient Express. Crazy twist I know, but stick with me. It follows Hercule Poirot as he stumbles into this murder, and accepts the case because he knows the proprietor of the train. The book itself is pretty simple, but in a good way I think. It goes: set-up and murder, interviewing the suspects, and conclusions, and this helped focus my attention while reading. There isn’t really a subplot, save for the connections between the suspects, but that plays into the main story. The writing itself is also simple, but that doesn’t take away from the novel. Right now I’m reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, which is about the Spanish Civil War and contains a lot of flowery language, but that’s because it represents many different things, and Hemingway helps the reader understand this by using that kind of language. Christie does the same thing, but she uses the language to help focus the reader on the mystery for the most part.

The mystery itself amazing. First of all, the setting is impossible to beat. A murder on a fancy train with only a limited number of subjects and a limited amount of space is genius. It really gets you thinking through all of the possibilities and if you ended up missing some key piece of evidence. I was definitely trying to figure out how Poirot got to the ending, even though I already knew what that was. Eventually I realized that: 1) I was missing a lot of evidence, and 2) I would have more fun if I just let the story play out, so I did, and I did. The revealing of certain pieces of information, like how Mr. Ratched only spoke one language, didn’t seem important at the time but definitely paid off at the end.

SPOILERS FOR THE END

I also thought the ending was amazingly done. It almost seems like the type of thing that couldn’t be done today, because it gives Poirot a grey area where he makes a definitive choice. Usually the only detectives you have are out for the truth, no matter the cost. But here, Poirot lets everyone go, because justice has been done. It was a masterpiece of an ending, and lends itself to re-read-ability.

Murder on the Orient Express is like watching AI cross over Jordan. It’s always good.

Right now I’m definitely giving it the Thomas Recommends (TM) seal, and might be moving it up to the Hall of Fame, but that’s TBD.