Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries, 10)

One of her earliest works and a page turner! Great script and characters. Quick read and crafted ending. Prepares you to read more of AC's works.

This is a classic. I realize that a lot of people may not see it that way, but I do. If you want to talk mystery novels, two names come to mind - Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. (Yes I realize one is an author and one is a character. They are both names, though.) My son isn't a fan of mystery novels. And his impression of Sherlock Holmes has already been established via the BBC television show and Robert Downey, Jr. movies. So, I decided that the ideal book to expose him to the world of mystery novels would be "Murder on the Orient Express". We used this book as a homeschool assignment and paired it with a Common Core based study guide. It made for an interesting assignment and I very much enjoyed reading my son's thoughts on Poirot's assessments of the evidence vs his own opinions. This book gave him a lovely insight into the concept of good vs evil, as well as the moral questions regarding whether there is ever a time when it might be acceptable to commit murder. The book is a good read, an entertaining story, and an opportunity to discuss some very interesting ethical questions. Honestly, I don't believe that my son will be interested in adding more murder mysteries to his reading repertoire in the future. However, he enjoyed reading this book and, in my opinion, will find it to be a useful cultural reference point in the future. All opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own. I have shared with you my personal experience with this product and cannot guarantee that you will have the same experience with the product that I had, nor can I promise that we will share the same opinion of the product.

I am an Agatha Christie n00b. I like all kinds of mystery/ thrillers and have recently finished the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovitch and have now moved on to the Alex Cross series by James Patterson. I had just finished book 2 of Alex Cross when I decided I wanted a break from the modern thrillers. I think with the modern writers, the author feels like they have to have that crazy twist and after a while you just start thinking about the craziest twist the author could pull, and thus it becomes predictable. I still enjoy those books, but how cow this book was like a breath of fresh air. I can't believe I have never read or seen an Agatha Christie story before, I had heard of her but for some reason had no interest. Well, that was a big mistake. Huge. On to the book: My favorite part about the whole book is how logical everything is, and how well it flows. Poirot's problem solving process feels like a professor walking you through a complex math problem, breaking everything down step by step. You can only move on if the previous step is logical. I like that a lot, it feels like Sherlock Holmes but much more orderly, and without compromising the suspense of it all. Poirot is a very likable protagonist, he empathizes with everyone and yet he is so uncompromising with his own logic and principles. He is very gentlemanly and charming, and this is going to sound so corny but as I was reading this it almost felt like he was my mentor teaching me how to solve this mystery on my own. I may give out SPOILERS from this point on. I loved, LOVED the plot. It had hints of An Inspector Calls and Twelve Angry Men, both were great stories with complex character development. They all do start out a little slow, but it's always just enough to keep you going and then- BAM! It starts to snowball before you know it, and you can't put the book down. I don't know what else to say, except this book really has a good beginning, middle and end. I found the ending thoroughly satisfying. I liked that it made logical sense for them to come to the conclusion that they agreed upon. If you haven't already read this book, don't wait any longer! I solidly recommend it.

This book was a very fast and enjoyable read. I was definitely surprised at how fast I finished. This was a re-read for me, however, it was so long ago I had forgotten all of the story, (except the ending). What I really liked... I liked author Christie's writing, it flows very well and although there are multiple characters there is no confusion at all. I enjoyed the mystery, the way the book is broken up into parts. The first part, describes the setting and then the crime itself. Obviously, I am not giving anything away when I state there was, in fact, a murder committed. Then, the second part is about the investigation, questioning of the suspects, just the basics. As this second section moves on they go more into depth about each character (titles, jobs, lives, etc...). Then the third section is the most interesting for me. I really enjoyed the theories each investigator came up with. I enjoyed the French in the book! If I had not read this book before I would have had no idea who committed the murder. Since this was a re-read I knew how it was to end. What I didn't like... I didn't necessarily, not like this. But must point it out for readers who might find offensive or be sensitive. Due to the time period when this was written there are a lot of talks about nationality. However, I think author Christie was making play on those and pointing out how absurd they really are, for example: all Italians stab instead of use a gun and so on... Presumptuous stereotypes just thrown in by the investigators of the crime. She did not write this book with racism. I think she was making a point to show how dumb stereotypes and how wrong they are. Those are my thoughts. Overall, I enjoyed this read and will continue reading Christie books. I was just refreshed with this book, pleasant read!

Just a disclaimer, I would never spoil anything in the book through this review so do not worry. Also, I am 23 and I have only read a handful of books so keep that in mind while I review this. To start off, the book is more flimsy/floppy than I expected but the real life pictures of the movie are pretty cool. They also show pictures about halfway through the book of the movie scenes. However, after one day it already showed signs of wear. Moving on, as for the book itself, I found it quite enjoyable. It got right on with the story without much delay. There were of course a lot of characters so for me personally I google image searched characters so it could help me visualize whom I was reading about. All of the names were ones I’ve never heard of before and being one who is already bad at names I just needed that extra google image help lol. I will say that with me being so close to the end of the story I was surprised to say that I still had no clue who commited the murder. And when I did figure out/finish the book I was pretty surprised (I didn’t not suspect such an ending) and that’s coming from someone who ALWAYS guesses the ending to almost every movie/book. So that in itself deserves to be acknowledged. I picked up this book so that I might finish it before the movie, which I did, and have to say I’m very excited now to see the movie. Usually I know the movie is subpar in conparison to books however I feel like the movie should be able to do it justice because I feel like I personally can visualize so many characters by watching their faces rather than memorizing all of these names on paper. As I said before, I had to refer back to google images multiple times, but hey I’m just a visual person that way. All in all I would recommend the book to a friend as the ending did come to me as a complete surprise. If you like the idea of juggling around the “who did it” thought in your head then this will be a good read for you.

Wonderful page Turner

good

It was time to read the author's words after watching the superb videos starring Albert Finney (et al, quite some et al) and David Suchet. Christie's plot is elaborate in character and investigative plot, and the solution is quite a surprise the first time you read or watch the story; and how Poirot deals with the solution in the end is a second surprise. The locale of the famed Orient Express train is a wonderful setting for the crime and its investigation, very cramped quarters for the large list of characters. There is no scenery, no travel from place to place after the beginning. Just a corridor, staterooms, and group rooms including the dining car to gather everyone for Christie's Poirot-formula gathering of the entire cast as Poirot reveals the truth. The bunch of characters cramped within is curiously eclectic, from the unlikeable (!!) victim to the brilliant/mannered detective. The nonessentials are stripped away, even the movement of the train which is stalled in a snowdrift for most of the duration. A mystery fan will get lost in this and the pages and hours will melt away. While I started with the videos, one could appreciate the videos after the pages even while knowing the extremely clever two-surprises ending. The second time through in any medium will leave room to appreciate the respective crafts of author or director+actors+props. Christie sprinkles clues throughout, which a reader may miss the first time through but can look for on rereading/rewatching. I look forward to several more reads and then more revisits of both videos. Perhaps the best time to experience this is while snowed in. :^)

I’ve read these books like a thousand times and I love it

Appalling kindle version. I read the first ten pages and couldn’t make sense of it. Returning it for a refund.

Ich möchte in der Rezension zwei Dinge unterscheiden, zum einen die Kindle-Version und zum anderen den Inhalt des Buches. Zur Kindle-Version: Die Kindle-Version ist absolut in Ordnung. Man kann da wirklich nicht meckern. Zum Inhalt: Da ich nicht zu viel verraten will, hier nur ganz grob, worum es geht. Wie der Titel schon verrät, geht es um einen Mord im Zug, im sogenannten Orient Express. Da der Zug in einem Schneesturm stecken bleibt, muss Poirot, der Fahrgast ist, die Sache übernehmen, da niemand in bzw. aus dem Zug gelangen kann. Alle Fahrgäste sind verdächtigt. Doch wer hat den Fahrgast ermordet? Der Kriminalfall hat mir wirklich sehr gut gefallen. Zunächst wirkte er etwas konstruiert auf mich, doch wird dies später aufgelöst und damit logisch. Wirklich tolle, spannende Geschichte. Auch als Nicht-Muttersprachler ist der Text gut zu verstehen. Vielleicht hilft das ja als Orientierung. Vielen Dank für das Lesen meiner Rezension. Ich hoffe, sie ist hilfreich. 😀

Loved the book quality as well as page quality. Bought this book because i am a big fan of Christie. Excited to dive in the plot!

Book delivered in very good condition. There's just the first page with the title that was cornered at the bottom right due to a printing default (the page corner was longer than supposed) The story itself is amazing, the twist is not predictable (although i was right with some suspects and some facts) and i love the ending too. This is definitely one of my favourite Poirot stories.