12/19/21

Murder on the Orient Express (1934) by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1934) is arguably one of the most famous whodunits ever written, set aboard the Orient Express traveling from Istanbul to Calais, populated with a cast of characters as memorable as the assembly of gargoyles from Death on the Nile (1937) – topped with a rich, elaborate plot and grant solution. A truly iconic detective novel and a classic of its kind, but, during the internet era, the book seems to have been downgraded a little. Apparently, the story with its exaggerated characters, world famous setting and surprise ending is too gimmicked that does not stand-up to rereading. 

So I marked the book for rereading and revisiting Murder on the Orient Express was like rereading John Dickson Carr's The Three Coffins (1934) all over again. Murder on the Orient Express is to the closed-circle whodunit what The Three Coffins is to the locked room mystery. The utterly bizarre and fantastically impossible done right! One of the characters remarked that "the whole thing is a fantasy." I agree. But it worked. There were few other mystery writers at the time, or even today, who could have pulled it off. Christie did it with flying colors! 

Murder on the Orient Express begins on a winter's morning in Aleppo, Syria, where Hercule Poirot has finished an unrecorded case that "saved the honour of the French Army" and is waiting to board the Taurus Express to Stamboul – intending to take a short holiday to see the city. A telegram is waiting for him at the hotel with an urgent plea to return to London and he books a sleeping car accommodation in the Stamboul-Calais coach of the Orient Express.

Normally, it's a slack period at that time of year and there are few people traveling with trains being almost empty, but it appears "all the world elects to travel tonight." Poirot finds an "extraordinary crowd" as his traveling companions as the Orient Express "on its three-days'' journey across Europe."

There's an unpleasant American businessman, Samuel Ratchett, who Poirot likened to a wild and savage animal in a respectable suit. Ratchett brought along his personal secretary and valet, Hector MacQueen and Edward Masterman. Mrs. Hubbard is an elderly, American lady and always complaining, raising an alarm or talking about her daughter and grandchildren. She has a presence, to put it kindly. Greta Ohlsson is a Swedish is a trained nurse and matron in a missionary school near Stamboul on holiday. Colonel Arbuthnot is the consummate soldier on leave and traveling from India to England, but he has own, secretive reason to come by overland route instead of the sea. Miss Mary Debenham is a British governess to two children in Baghdad and is returning to London on holiday. There are two American businessmen, Cyrus Hardman and Antonio Foscarelli, who are respectively a traveling salesman of typewriting ribbons and an agent for Ford motor cars. But there are also members of the old European aristocracy among the passengers. Count and Countess Andrenyi are a young diplomatic couple from Hungary. Princess Dragomiroff is remnant of a vanished world, "ugly as sin, but she makes herself felt," who's extremely rich with an iron-bound determination. She brought along her German lady's maid, Hildegarde Schmidt. Lastly there are M. Bouc, a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits, whose "acquaintance with the former star of the Belgian Police Force dated back many years." The attendant of the Istanbul Calais coach, Pierre Michel, who has been a loyal employee of the company for over fifteen years. Finally, a little Greek physician, Dr. Constantine, who provides Poirot with an important piece of medical evidence.

For three days these people, "of all classes, of all nationalities, of all ages," are brought together under one roof only to go their separate ways at the end of the three-day journey – "never, perhaps, to see each other again." But this journey was never destined to go according to schedule.

Poirot overhears an intimate conversation between two apparent strangers and Ratchett tries to hire him to help protect his life, which has been threatened by an enemy. Poirot turns him down ("I do not like your face, M. Ratchett") and what follows is tumultuous night in the Istanbul-Callais coach. Sounds of cries and groans. Mrs. Hubbard making a big cry about a man in her compartment who couldn't have been there. A woman wrapped in a scarlet kimono stalking down the corridor and banging on doors. The conductor tending to the needs of the passenger as he moved from compartment to compartment to answer all the tingling bells.

On the following morning, everyone aboard awakes to the news that the train has run into a snowdrift and they're now stuck somewhere in Yugoslavia. What makes their position a particularly precarious is discovery that Ratchett was brutally stabbed to death in his berth. Evidence tells them nobody could have left since they ran into the snowdrift and the murderer is still with them on the train.

M. Bouc implores Poirot to solve the case before the Yugoslavian police can have their way with his highly esteemed customers and reminds Poirot he has often heard him say "to solve a case a man has only to lie back in his chair and think." So he wants him to "interview the passengers on the train, view the body, examine what clues there are" and then let "the little grey cells of the mind" do their work. Murder on the Orient Express certainly presents one of Poirot's most fascinating investigations on record as they have "none of the facilities afforded to the police" and "have to rely solely on deduction."

Firstly, Poirot takes a page from R. Austin Freeman's Dr. John Thorndyke by using an old-fashioned hatbox, spirit lamp and a pair of curling tongs to make words reappear on a charred fragment of paper – which he found on the victim's bedside table. The words Poirot briefly made legible told him who Ratchett really was and this knowledge places an entirely different complexion on the case and passengers. So the middle section of the story comprises of a series of interviews, but this portion can hardly be described as "Dragging the Marsh." On the contrary! It's an example how to write a series of interrogations without dragging the story to a snail's pace like a weighted rope was tied to it. Poirot acts as both a detective and armchair general as he varies how he approaches each potential suspect. Poirot's methods with one passenger could be a complete contrast to his handling of another passenger. Methodically, the little Belgian detective gathers all the crumbs his fellow passengers left on the table during these interviews and subsequent investigation, but that would understate just how brashly clued Murder on the Orient Express really is.

Christie recklessly alluded to the truth almost from the start and never stopped. If you already know the solution, you almost want to tell her to stop in giving the whole game away. But that's what separates the true masters from the second-stringer who too often guard a second-rate clue from the reader. However, Christie not only was overly generous with her clues and hints, but she openly casts aspersion on the red herrings she planted herself! Poirot notes that the victim's compartment is "full of clues," but wonders whether he can "be sure that those clues are really what they seem to be." Christie even had a physical manifestation of the red herring prancing around the train. All these clues and red herrings form a delightful and contradictory picture with the "affair advances in a very strange manner."

There's also the ghosts of the locked room mystery and impossible crime stalking the compartments and corridors of the Orients Express. The door of Ratchett's compartment was chain-locked on the inside and the communicating door bolted on the other side in addition to two people who were seen on the train, but they cannot be found anywhere. However, these are quasi-impossibilities instead of a full-blown locked room mysteries, which is why I didn't tag this review as a locked room mystery. But it was a nice touch to the story. 

Murder on the Orient Express cements its status as a classic with a beautifully handled ending as Poirot gathers everyone in the dining car to propound two solutions to the murder. One of them is simple and full of holes, while the second solution is complicated, grotesquely fantastic, highly original and strangely convincing. A resolution that will have some readers check their moral compass to see if its broken. Sure, the passage of time has dulled the surprise and originality of the solution a little, but shouldn't detract from an overall first-class performance demonstrating why she rivaled the Bible and William Shakespeare. Deservedly so! 

Notes for the curious: the character of Dr. Constantine was very likely a nod to Molly Thynne's series-detective, Dr. Constantine, who's a Greek doctor and amateur detective. Why a nod or acknowledgment to that obscure detective? The second of Thynne's Dr. Constantine detective novels, Death in the Dentist's Chair (1933), shares a rather unique, language-based clue with Murder on the Orient Express. I wonder if Christie intended her Dr. Constantine to be same as Thynne's Dr. Constantine considering his role in the story. There's another possible crossover, one of the characters seems to have had a previous appearance in The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928), which is never acknowledged, but it would make sense if they were one and the same person – since (ROT13) gur Oyhr Genva pnfr pbhyq unir tvira gur pbafcvengbef gur vqrn gb hfr gur Bevrag Rkcerff. Finally, I reviewed Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed, vol. 78 back in August and the headline story, “Mystery Express,” is an ingenious and warm homage to Murder on the Orient Express.

11 comments:

  1. Great choice of read as we approach Christmas. One of my favourites, the ultimate confined-space-in-motion whodunnit and among that exalted group of titles that demonstrate why she was the unrivalled grandmaster of detective fiction. Aside from the setting, I love the solution for how incredibly innovative and unconventional it was. Even my father, who isn't particularly a fan of whodunnits, had to doff his hat at that solution. Glad the book held up for you upon rereading.

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    1. It has happened before that a detective story turned out to be not as good as I remembered (e.g. Robert van Gulik's The Chinese Gold Murders, but I'm very glad both Murder on the Orient Express and The Three Coffins stood up to another read. Yes, this is the all-time greatest train mystery ever written that has never been topped. The 1930s detective novel in all its splendor!

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  2. Great review, TomCat! I have been puzzled to nth degree by the mixed reviews of this that have been popping up lately. Ever since I first read it (something like...eleven years ago? Yikes!) I've viewed it as a masterpiece of the first order. It's got everything: brilliant clueing, one of those solutions that really sticks with you, and effectively memorable characterization. (It's one of the books I'd call as a witness contra the ridiculous view that Christie couldn't write!) But the thing that impresses me the most about it is, as you mentioned, just how well executed the interviews are. They're so interestingly done, so nuanced, that, years after my last reread, they stick in my mind as vividly as the denouement.

    (What follows are some spoilery reflections on MotOE and And Then There Were None, so I'll put them in ROT-13.)

    V gunax gung ZbgBR vf rfcrpvnyyl qrrc jura pbafvqrerq nybat jvgu NGGJA. Obgu ner rknzvangvbaf bs gur vqrn bs whfgvsvnoyr zheqre, ohg ybbxrq ng sebz bccbfvgr raqf. Shegurezber, gurl obgu cynl jvgu gur pbaprcg bs rirelbar orvat thvygl bs n pevzr (ng yrnfg nethnoyl fb va NGGJA), jvgu gur qvssrerapr orvat jurgure vg'f gur pevzr haqre vairfgvtngvba be abg. Gurl qrny jvgu gur fnzr gurzrf, ohg va jvyqyl qvssrerag jnlf.

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    1. Well, I can somewhat understand the criticism of the characterization here as they're memorable because there's a hint of caricature in their personality, which is why the cast of characters stick in your mind. And they served the plot. I don't think that should be a reason to deduct point. Christie set out to write a grand-style whodunit, not a novel of character, which needed a cast of characters and setting worthy of such an endeavor. I think she succeeded.

      Good point about And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. Maybe it's time to give that ATTWN another look while this one is still fresh in my memory.

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  3. Though I own most of if not all of Christie's books, I've never read this. I know the conclusion so it's never been a priority. Sounds like I need to rethink that. Happy holidays!

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    1. That definitely sounds like something that needs to be reconsidered. Happy holidays and a happy New Year!

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  4. I wonder if the naysayers have READ this as opposed to having seen it on film. It’s been a very long time since I read it, and think I need to do so again. Thanks for the review, TomCat, happy holidays to you!

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    1. Sorry for the late response, but was distracted away from the blog. I suppose some of the naysayers have only seen one of the TV/movie adaptations or just know about the solution, which is famous enough to be known to the general public. But have also read comments from people who tossed the book across the room. So I think it's a bit too much, or too rich, for some to swallow.

      Happy holiday and best wishes for 2022!

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  5. I read this again in February 2021 because I wanted to compare the version with David Suchet to this one. I did not remember it being quite so serious but the book was more serious than I remembered from my last read in 2013. I also did not remember Poirot being quite so religious as he was depicted by Suchet. I love all the adaptations that I have seen (I am sure I have missed a few) and I marvel at the complexities of the plot in all of them...

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    1. I'm not a fan of the late run of David Suchet adaptations. Murder on the Orient Express was decent enough, plot-wise, but, despite the already serious source material, forgot it was also a detective story and took itself too seriously with Poirot's religion mixed in. Only reason they could have had for doing that was to not create a copy of the 1970s movie with Albert Finney, which was so much better than the Suchet version. Either way, it remains a shining example of Christie's skills as a mystery writer and plotter.

      Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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    2. Happy holidays to you too, TomCat.

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