By Marlow Tracy
(no
spoilers)
I recently finished reading And Then There Were None by
Agatha Christie, which I found to have too many murders and not enough clues.
Despite the questionable amount of death, I liked the writing style of the
book, so I picked up another well-known novel by the same author: Murder on
the Orient Express. The story begins with the famous detective Hercule
Poirot, whose journey on the Orient Express takes an unfortunate turn when one
of the passengers is found stabbed to death with his compartment locked from
the inside. With the train stranded on a snowdrift, Poirot must work quickly to
find out which of his cabin-mates is the murderer using a series of obscure
clues.
Before starting the novel, the concept of a story taking place on
a train intrigued me. The confined setting creates character interactions that
otherwise might never take place, and the lack of need for description forces
the author to focus on advancing the plot and including important details
instead of filler pages. A few years ago, I read through about half of Lord
of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein before becoming bored of the lengthy and
cumbersome descriptions of the setting and the movements of characters and
confused about the direction of the main plotline. Contrastingly, in Murder
on the Orient Express, almost every scene is used to advance the plot. The
writing is made up of mostly dialogue, which makes for a fast-paced,
interesting writing style and distinct character personalities.
Near the beginning of the novel, M. Bouc, a friend of Poirot’s,
comments on the romanticism of strangers traveling together on a train. Poirot
suggests that the passengers may become connected if a train accident occurred:
“Then, perhaps, all these here are linked together--by death” (24). Although a
train accident wasn’t quite what happened, the line gives the reader a bit of
insight into the future of the story. I love how the author includes plenty of
foreshadowing details like this one, as well as providing lots of clues that
let the reader speculate without giving too much away. Some murder mystery
novels leave the reader literally ‘without a clue’ until the very end of the
story to add weight to the final reveal, but having more clues and still not
knowing what’s going on can make it all the more exciting when the case is
finally figured out.
On the back of the book, it states that Agatha Christie is “the
most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and
Shakespeare.” Now, I understand why that is true. Murder on the Orient
Express is a fast-paced novel full of interesting characters, intricate
details, and mind-bending clues. It’s a super fun read and I would recommend it
to anyone who likes murder mystery, detective novels, train stories, or just
wants an interesting quick read. 10/10 good book (and now I need to go see the
movie!).
(spoilers
below this point!!!)
If
you’ve read the novel or seen the movie, you will know that the murdered man
(real name Cassetti) was stabbed to death cooperatively by almost all of his
fellow train-car-mates, similarly to how Roman dictator Caesar was stabbed to
death by his companions. The murder was an act of revenge for Cassetti’s brutal
kidnapping and murder of an innocent child, and the subsequent suicide of one of
her caretakers. Personally, I do not enjoy meaningless cold-blooded murder of
the innocent, which is another of the reasons I liked this novel so much - the
bad guy got what he deserved, and the good guys got away scott-free. Even
though the victim’s true identity isn’t revealed until near the middle of the
book, the author portrays him from the beginning as a generally unlikeable and
potentially evil character. The reader is free to get caught up in the suspense
of the novel while still being comforted by the fact that the murder itself was
not an act of evil, but of justice for the victim’s wrongdoings.
This is a fantastic review! I read Murder on the Orient Express a while ago and I also really enjoyed it. By the time the middle of the book came around, I was a bit frustrated when I couldn't really pick up on the clues to reveal the murderer. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that almost everyone took part in the crime. I too enjoy reading Agatha Christie and I find myself seeking out her books more often than not. By the way, the movie is pretty good and I hope you get to see it soon!
ReplyDeleteWhen the movie adaptation came out for Murder on the Orient Express I really enjoyed it, but I unfortunately didn't know that it was based off of a book. However, after reading your review, I will definitely check this novel out! You described the writing style of the book very well, and I appreciate your separation of the non spoiler and spoiler section. Thank you for writing such a detailed review!
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