Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition

I do love seeing Poirot solving the mystery. I loved the range of characters that kept you guessing. Christie is not an author that gives you all of the clues, but enough that it makes sense in the end. It was a good mystery.

A busy, dizzy read and quite entertaining. Enough clues to keep the mind alert and to require the hand to turn back a few pages at times.

And this is one of the best. She would have made a great detective herself such is her reasoning acumen.

I'm combining this review of the book and movie together because the stories are so closely related, and I think that anyone who likes the movie will be interested to know about the book, and readers who have enjoyed the book may like to get some details about the movie. The 1974 movie is a true classic, and along with many others I look forward to the time when it will be digitally restored and issued on blu-ray disk.I love the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express movie and have watched it several times over the years on TV and DVD. I've only recently read the book for the first time on Kindle, and was frankly quite amazed to see how faithful the movie was to Christie's novel of the same title written in 1934. Since most of the story takes place on a train, it was relatively easy for producers to keep the movie closely aligned to the book even in many small details, and I'm grateful that they did. After reading the book and seeing how Christie portrayed Poirot as being a more quiet and low key personality, I can appreciate that some criticize the selection and performance of Albert Finney as Poirot because he is often quite emotional and demonstrative, as well as physically different than the Poirot Christie described. This is the only major difference between the 1974 movie and the book, though it can be a crucial difference for Christie fans.Christie's story is loosely based on the actual kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's 20-month-old son in 1932. A $50,000 ransom was paid but the baby was murdered and his body was found two months later. A household servant who was suspected by the police of playing a part in the kidnapping did commit suicide.In Christie's story, Hercule Poirot is returning to England aboard the Orient Express. The train is halted at night because of heavy snow and a passenger is found murdered in his bed the following morning. A doctor happens to be on board and tells Poirot that there are twelve stab wounds in the body. Everyone in the coach is a suspect, but what was the motive? Poirot must wade through the maze of contradictory clues and apparent impossibilities, some of which make him recall a child kidnapping/murder that happened a few years previously.The 1974 movie was stylishly done with great performances by an all star cast, and the music is also wonderful. Wikipedia lists these awards and Cast members:Academy Award: Best Supporting Actress, Ingrid BergmanAcademy Award Nomination: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Albert FinneyAcademy Award Nomination: Best Cinematography, Geoffrey UnsworthAcademy Award Nomination: Best Costume Design, Tony WaltonAcademy Award Nomination: Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, Richard Rodney BennettAcademy Award Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted from Other Material, Paul DehnCastAlbert Finney ... Hercule PoirotLauren Bacall ... Mrs. Harriet Belinda HubbardSean Connery ... Colonel ArbuthnottIngrid Bergman ... Greta OhlssonMichael York ... Count Rudolf AndrenyiVanessa Redgrave ... Mary DebenhamJacqueline Bisset ... Countess Elena AndrenyiRichard Widmark ... Mr. RatchettJohn Gielgud ... Edward Henry MastermanAnthony Perkins ... Hector McQueenMartin Balsam ... BianchiRachel Roberts ... Hildegarde SchmidtWendy Hiller ... Princess DragomiroffDenis Quilley ... Antonio (Tony) FoscarelliColin Blakely (as Colin Blankey) ... Cyrus B. "Dick" HardmanJean-Pierre Cassel ... Pierre MichelGeorge Coulouris ... Dr. ConstantineThe 2004 DVD has good video & audio quality, and it plus the nicely formatted Kindle book or printed books will make great gifts for mystery lovers. I enjoyed reading the Kindle book and often replay the DVD because the movie is that great. I hope you will enjoy them also.

For those readers that like to put themselves into Hercule Poirot’s character and try their luck at solving the murder, this book is handmade for you. But beware! Poirot is an amazing sleuth with uncanny deduction abilities. It is a hard act to follow even though there are clues aplenty. ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ is Christie’s most famous work, with 3 movies based on it. I fear that it would be redundant to go over the specifics of the site and situation of the murder. A large part of the book is devoted to Poirot interviewing the suspects, and it is only the great personality of the detective that carries the plot forward thereby avoiding falling into a tedious slog. I was captivated by the interviews, with meeting such an array of great characters. The dialogue in the interrogations was some of the most edgy and enlightening in the book. I liked the way Christie went over the clues (and red herrings) several times, apparently so that the reader could keep up. Only problem was, that it was still difficult to keep all the who-said-what-when straight. The ending. One has to forgo believability a bit, but it was indeed memorable, and for me, unpredictable. In the end I was proud of Poirot and his astonishing powers of reason. A fun read.

If you have knowledge of French, you will enjoy and possibly figure out the murder. Loved all the ways Agatha put it all together

Murder on the Orient Express was my first book by Agatha Christie, and I can't wait to read more!After a passenger on the Orient Express is found stabbed to death, it is determined that he has a sordid past. Hercule Poirot has just a few days to determine which of the other 12 passengers committed the crime. Each suspect has an alibi, but are any of those alibis reliable?If you are a fan of mysteries, this book is definitely for you!

One of my all time favourite Agatha Christie novels (also a favourite in audio version and film). Atmospheric and perfectly plotted. The enigmatic Poirot aboard the Orient Express (what could possibly be a better, more heavenly combination!) - no relaxing sojourn for him! Technically brilliant, M.Poirot tackles each passenger involved, in turn, in an effort to find the truth. In wonderful form, he solves the crime with a magnificent denouement. A varied bunch of characters - some gloriously over the top. You will be transported back to the Golden Age and it's not to be missed. Each time I read this novel I'm there..on That Train! (Do try the BBC dramatised audio book too if able, it's atmospherically stunning and extremely well performed). A must for your collection.

I read this because it was a Kindle daily deal (can't beat a 99p book) and because people reviewed it saying "if you've never read an Agatha Christie novel, this is a good place to start" - Agatha Christie is a famous name in crime novels, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. All throughout the book I was picturing David Suchet as Poirot - it was hard not to!It was an interesting read. Having never seen Murder on the Orient Express I had no idea whodunnit and so the whole case was a mystery to me. I enjoyed the way Agatha Christie wove the tale, creating links between characters slowly until the ending - which was a surprise, and I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it.The writing was easy to follow, which was a surprise to me considering it was written in 1934, it reads like present day language! The only clues you have that it's an older book are countries mentioned that no longer exist, e.g. Yugoslavia. It was very easy to read and overall a very enjoyable novel.I'd recommend it to people who like watching shows like Sherlock and Jonathan Creek, you know the type of shows - where links only become apparent when the main character explains why they're apparent - you wouldn't have thought it a link otherwise.It's a good book to get lost in for a few hours, and I'll be looking at getting other Agatha Christie novels in the future. This one has definitely stood the test of time.

I read Murder on the Orient Express with my book club. It was one of two Agatha Christie books chosen for January. This was only the second Agatha Christie book I had read (the first being our other pick for the month), and honestly I was disappointed. Despite this being a January read, and only being just over 200 pages, I didn’t finish it until the end of February because I was struggling to bring myself to pick it back up.The pace of the story is way too slow for my liking. I like my crime novels to be fast paced and exciting, and this just wasn’t it. I found myself losing interest. I appreciate Poirot’s process and methods to cracking a case, but they’re just not that enjoyable to read. It’s all so long winded.We were given so much information about ALL of the characters, but even then, I felt no connection with any of them. I didn’t particularly like or dislike any of them, I simply didn’t care about them. I do quite like Poirot’s character though, I enjoy his no care attitude, and the fact that he doesn’t tolerate any bullshit.The only reason I really continued with the story is because I actually wanted to find out who did it, but even that was a let down. It was so anti-climatic, and to me it felt like Christie had just thrown something together without much thought for the who done it.I had such high expectations for this book, considering how well loved it is, but ultimately I was let down. It has made me unsure as to whether to even bother reading any more of Agatha Christie’s books.I give Murder on The Orient Express a 2 star rating, and that’s probably being generous.

Reading this today it is easy to see how much the world has changed since this was first published in 1933. A group people of many different nationalities, on a train caught by snowdrifts and unable to move, faced with the murder of one of their number - and with Hercule Poirot on hand to resolve matters; a perfect set up for a fast paced, fascinating tale. And it is - i read it in a day, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The changes are amazing - everyone smokes - and on the train at that - they judge people by their nationalities, and have a whole host of national stereotypes to draw on, and no one can communicate withe the rest of the world - no mobile phones, no computers, no email. A different world - the tale starts in Aleppo - but a fascinating one, in a story brilliantly told

Agatha Christie's crisp, machine-tooled prose keeps Murder On The Orient Express moving along. She has little interest in detailed characters, so the focus is very much on the murder that takes place as a puzzle rather than anything deeper. Poirot, of course, is on the money, picking up clues and mis-directions that confound some of his colleagues. But, the process-driven nature of the book leads to dull storytelling, and the conclusion seems quite abrupt. Readable enough, full of dated observations and casual stereotyping of people, but the film version (Finney not Branagh) is way superior and actually makes more connections between the characters than you'll find in the book version.