Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie, 1934
★ 4.19 from 779.5k ratings on Goodreads
One murdered passenger, a compartment locked from the inside, and a small Belgian who reads lies better than anyone. A closed-circle puzzle at its purest. A calm, witty puzzle that keeps your curiosity ticking as Poirot sorts a locked-room murder from a snowbound train.
Feels like curiosity, joy and wonder. About solitude, memory and death.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like closed-circle mysteries, train settings, and watching a detective interview a small cast of suspects. The middle relies on repeated interviews, and the final explanation is one some readers find far-fetched.
Why read it
It offers a tidy, clever diversion: a snowbound train, a cast of suspects, and a detective who treats lying as a language.
A page from the book
A detective grades a crime by the nationality of the mind behind it.
I have the little idea, my friend, that this is a crime very carefully planned and staged. It is a far-sighted, long-headed crime. It is not — how shall I express it? — a Latin crime. It is a crime that shows traces of a cool, resourceful, deliberate brain — I think an Anglo-Saxon brain. What readers say
Readers say the book is a fun, clever puzzle with a surprising twist that keeps them guessing. Some find the repeated interviews repetitive or the solution far-fetched, and a few dislike Poirot.
Agatha Christie.Christie first rode the Orient Express alone in 1928, from Istanbul; the Paris–Istanbul sleeper of her day was a luxury hotel on wheels with a dining car and a salon.
Books that feel like this
More by Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile
Agatha Christie, 1937
A Nile cruise, a honeymoon, and a murder among strangers who all have a reason. Poirot, on holiday, must untangle a knot of jealousy before the boat docks.
Curtain
Agatha Christie, 1975
An ageing Poirot returns to Styles, the scene of his first case, to hunt a murderer who leaves no trace and seems always one step ahead.
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie, 1939
Ten strangers are invited to an island where a nursery rhyme starts coming true; Christie's most airtight trap, and her most human.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Murder on the Orient Express for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like closed-circle mysteries, train settings, and watching a detective interview a small cast of suspects. The middle relies on repeated interviews, and the final explanation is one some readers find far-fetched.
- What is Murder on the Orient Express like?
- A calm, witty puzzle that keeps your curiosity ticking as Poirot sorts a locked-room murder from a snowbound train. Feels like curiosity, joy and wonder. About solitude, memory and death.
- What should I read after Murder on the Orient Express?
- If you liked Murder on the Orient Express, try The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon), Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (Arthur Conan Doyle).
A taste of the feed
How a father says I love you without touching his son.
I stepped outside. Father was standing in the corridor. He held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people, so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time · Mark Haddon
A man reframes his self-interest as an act of atonement.
Having now a good house and a very sufficient income, he intended to marry; and in seeking a reconciliation with the Longbourn family he had a wife in view, as he meant to choose one of the daughters, if he found them as handsome and amiable as they were represented by common report. This was his plan of amends—of atonement—for inheriting their father’s estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.
Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
Why a blank diary can feel like a friend you've half-forgotten.
Harry couldn’t explain, even to himself, why he didn’t just throw Riddle’s diary away. The fact was that even though he knew the diary was blank, he kept absent-mindedly picking it up and turning the pages, as though it was a story he wanted to finish. And while Harry was sure he had never heard the name T. M. Riddle before, it still seemed to mean something to him, almost as though Riddle was a friend he’d had when he was very small, and half-forgotten. But this was absurd. He’d never had friends before Hogwarts, Dudley had made sure of that.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets · J. K. Rowling
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