Book Review: Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express
An amazing story of what may seem coincidences but in actuality is a series of planned incidences. It is amazing how with meagre information and confirming alibii, the protagonist, M. Hercule Poirot, solves the case, of “The Murder on the Orient Express.” It is indeed a very engaging story that made me read it in almost one go! The story worked so well in the markets that years later Fox came up with a movie on the same.

The novel starts with Hercule Poirot planning to stay for a day in Stamboul (modern day Istanbul) when he suddenly receives a telegram to leave as soon as possible with developments in a particular case requiring his urgent attention. Despite being the off season, the first class coach is completely filled. Poirot meets M. Bouc, the director of the railway company, Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, an old acquaintance who somehow gets a seat for Poirot by himself moving to another coach added to the train in Belgrade.
Soon, he leaves for London in the direction of the Stamboul Calais coach. In the train he meets Mr. Ratchett, the strange man who had earlier that day offered Poirot a very high sum to protect his life to which Poirot refused in the hotel in Stamboul. Poirot gets comfortable and is going well through the journey during the first night when he is called for in the morning by M. Bouc. Poirot goes inside that coach only to find out that a man had been murdered through the night and stabbed around twelve times. It is no surprise to the reader that the murdered man was Mr. Ratchett.
Poirot along with Dr. Constantine and M. Bouc sets on an enquiry to each and passenger after examining the coach of the dead man. In the coach he finds a burnt note with the words ‘-member little Daisy Armstrong’. That is when we come to know of the real identity of Mr. Ratchett. He was Cassetti, a criminal who had kidnapped Daisy Armstrong, the daughter of a military commander and granddaughter of a great tragedy actress Linda Arden, which had led to the deaths of Daisy and her parents as well as a maid. Cassetti had come off scot free from the case using his money.
The train has around twelve passengers each having a witness to support each other’s alibi. Things get delicate and tougher for him with royal people like a Princess and a Count and Countess on the train. He finds misleading clues and like a man with a feminine voice and a woman with scarlet kimono. But through a little bit of harsh questioning and guess work, Poirot finally manages to give two theories to the murder mystery.
Either a stranger boarded the train and murdered Cassetti, or that each person in the train had some relation with Cassetti and had a reason to kill him. Mrs. Daisy Hubbard, the w woman, finally confesses that all the people had been related to the Armstrongs including the Conductor of the coach and that the second theory was true. The conductor was the father of Daisy’s governess. However, the officials decide to give the first story to the Yugoslav Police in whose jurisdiction that train had stopped owing to the snow as well as the murder.
Agatha Christie amazingly describes each character in the coach. With descriptions so vivid that each figure takes a solid shape before the reader’s eyes. It is a striking concept to use twelve murderers, each with a reason of his own to avenge the same person in the train. It alludes to the twelve member jury that sits in court to do justice to the case at hand, just that here is a self appointed jury. The setting has a French touch due to the central character, Poirot, being French. However small foreign language conversations do not make the readers disinterested at any instant in the entire mystery. On the whole, it is surely a good read over the weekend!
Image: https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/murder-on-the-orient-express
