Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie | Book Review

【 MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 】

A thrillingly fun mystery.

Genre: Mystery, Crime
Author: Agatha Christie
Published: January 1934
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 346 (paperback)

I’m a great admirer of Agatha Christie’s writing and I was well overdue to read Murder on the Orient Express, indisputably one of her more popular stories. The fun part about this was that I had seen a movie adaptation of it, but still couldn’t remember how the murder was done.

I find the structure of these books so much fun, with Poirot’s interviews of all suspects taking up a large portion of the book. Christie really allows room for the reader to sit in the room with Poirot and hear all the facts, so that they can see if they can work it out themselves. With the addition of some help from side characters who serve to make you feel less stupid when you can’t work it out (because they can’t either!)

The fun of putting together the timeline for this story and the impossibility of the murder likely to be someone still on the train as it remains stationary, stuck in the snow, makes this a great combination of spooky and fun.

I’d definitely rank this up there with And Then There Were None out of what I’ve read so far, although nothing will beat that absolutely classic and brain teaser – but surely this comes close!