Murder on the Orient Express
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Murder on the Orient Express (Collins, London, 1934) also called Murder on the Calais Coach (Dodd Mead, New York, 1934) is a 1934 novel by Agatha Christie.
The book was first published in Saturday Evening Post, from July 1 to September 30, 1933.
Plot
Detective Hercule Poirot is travelling on the Orient Express. On the journey, Poirot meets a very close friend Bouc, who works for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. The train is caught in heavy snows in the Bals on the second night out from Istanbul, and American millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is found stabbed to death the next morning.
He was stabbed 12 times, some lightly but at least 3 that could have accomplished death. Some marks were right-handed and some left-handed. Since the train has been surrounded by fresh snow since before the apparent time of death, and the doors to the other cars were locked, it seems that the murderer must still be among the passengers in Ratchett's car. Poirot, Bouc, and Dr. Constantine (a passenger on another car), work together to solve the case. They are aided by Pierre Michel, the middle-aged French conductor of the car. A key to the solution is Ratchett's revealed involvement in the Armstrong tragedy in America several years earlier, in which a baby was kidnapped and then murdered. (The fictitious Armstrong case was apparently inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.)
The twelve suspects are:
- Hector McQueen, a tall, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator.
- Edward Henry Masterman, the victim's British valet.
- Mary Debenham, a tall, dark, young British woman, working as a governess in Baghdad.
- Colonel Arbuthnot, a tall British army officer returning from India.
- Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, an elderly and very ugly Russian grande dame.
- Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged German woman, the Princess' lady's maid
- Count Rudolf Andrenyi, a tall, dark Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France.
- Countess Elena Andrenyi, neé Gründwall, his pale young wife.
- Greta Ohlsson, a middle-aged blonde Swedish missionary returning home for a vacation.
- Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard, former Gründwall, neé Arden, a plump, elderly, very excitable American woman returning from a visit to her daughter, a teacher in Baghdad.
- Antonio Foscarelli, a portly and exuberant Italian businessman.
- Cyrus "Dick" Hardman, a large and gregarious Texan typewriter ribbon salesman.
Film versions
- The book was made into a 1974 movie entitled Murder on the Orient Express starring Albert Finney as Poirot, with Ingrid Bergman receiving her third Academy Award, as best supporting actress in the role of the Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson.
- A made-for-television movie was also made in 2001.
- David Suchet will star as Poirot in an upcoming adaptation.
See also
External links
- [First chapter of the book] at agathachristie.com
- [Spark Notes for the book]
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