REVIEW: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

M is for Murder on the Orient Express

My first Agatha Christie's book, and certainly not the last.

Truth to be told, I was mind-blown. The facts, evidence, characters and the ENDING freaking blew my mind. I highly recommend this to everyone, reader or not. I don't think I will be able to give a detailed review without spoiling the book for whoever who has yet to read this masterpiece. So, I will be separating this review into two parts. Fret not, I will give you a heads up when the spoiler part comes.

And GUYS!!!! The movie of Murder on the Orient Express is coming out on 10 NOVEMBER 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANGELINA JOLIE IS TO BE MRS HUBBARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER!!!!!!!!!!

What is MOTOE about?

A group of passengers board the train (Orient Express), including the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot *fangirl mode on*. On the second night of the journey, the train stopped due to a snowdrift. Meanwhile, one of the passengers, Mr Rachett was killed, right beside the room of Poirot. Of course, Poirot undertook the responsibility to investigate.

Everyone is suspected. These passengers, some are very special people, like the Russian princess (Princess Dragomiroff), a very talkative American lady (Mrs Hubbard), an Italian car salesman (Antonio Foscarelli) who was initially suspected as the culprit as Italian was described as one that often used a knife as a weapon to kill.

There are a lot of characters in the book, more than 15. So, I would recommend you, while reading MOTOE, to have a piece of paper and pen to record about the characters. At least, that was what I did. Doing this made me feel like I'm Poirot's assistance, helping him to investigate. I mean, who doesn't want to be Poirot's assistance?!?!?! He's such an adorable character with his cleverness and cunningness!

A different version of MOTOE

Is it easy to read the book?

The book is super-duper easy to read. It mostly consists of dialogues. There are short but clear descriptions of the setting and the characters. For me, constructing the characters in my mind highly affects the way I rate a book. Dame Agatha made it so easy, even though I have yet to see any of the Poirot tv series or movies. Dame Agatha may not be a good writer as she didn't really focus much on literary description; her style of writing is straightforward and direct, so gentle, enjoyable and English.

***Do note that, you may need Google Translate when you are reading it. There are a few French dialogues.

What is the setting of MOTOE?

I find the setting very exotic. The story happened in a luxury first-class train, travelling from Istanbul to London, during the 1930s (post WW1).

How many parts can the story be separated?

In my humble opinion, I separated the story into three parts. At the beginning of the investigation, Dame Agatha introduced the passengers who board the train in the process of Poirot collecting evidence. Then, Poirot analysed these evidence, yet still couldn't find the murderer. He then carried out particularised interrogation, choosing only a certain characters, utilising his cunningness. Lastly, Poirot came to conclusion and revealed the dramatic truth.

How do I feel throughout the reading process?

When I was reading MOTOE, I kept having this struggle in my mind:

"Clearly ____ is the killer!"

"Wait. Not ____? Then it must be ____!"

"Definitely not ____!"

But followed much too quickly by:

"True. ____ may be helping ____."

I remember myself telling my boyfriend "How can someone be so stupid to kill someone in a train, in such a confined area? Surely he will get caught easily!" I was so wrong. Just when I thought things were getting a bit silly, the humorously clever Dame Agatha managed to make everything to have its meaning. The ending is OUTSTANDING. No words can describe how much I love the ending and the solution. There's a reason why Dame Agatha sold million copies of her books: SHE'S A PRO IN WHAT SHE'S DOING!

Rating: ★★★★★

If you are interested in reading this book, have some self-control, stop here, because the spoiler-free part has just ended.

If you are here, it either means, you have read the book and wouldn't mind seeing this part or, you lost your battle with self-control and want to read this part.

Mr Rachett was murdered, stabbed 12 times with a knife that has disappeared from the crime scene. Half of the 12 times was, analysed by Dr Constantine, an occupant of the train, done by a female and the other half was done by a man, judging from the edge of each wound. Poirot, together with the director of the train company, M. Bouc and Dr Constantine concluded that the fatal blow could not be determined among the wounds.

With such clue, I kept thinking there were two killers, a male and female. I guessed it was Colonel Arbuthnot and Miss Mary Debenham. Previously, in a train to Istanbul (not Orient Express), Poirot and these two characters were the only passengers of the train. Poirot overheard the conversation of these two person, one of them saying something like "Wait till it's all over". This even confirmed my suspicion.

I never thought Princess Dragomiroff is the culprit, knowing how old and weak she is in the book, that is impossible for her to stab.

Poirot concluded 13 passengers are suspects, but all of them had good alibi for the night Mr Rachett was murdered. Coincidentally, an extra berth was booked by a person named "Harris" who had not appeared in the story. This led to the temporary conclusion that this Harris person is the primary suspect of Mr Rachett's murder.

Poirot discovered, through a piece of paper that was not completely burned in Mr Rachett's room's ashtray, Mr Rachett was the kidnapper of a lovely baby (Daisy Armstrong), Cassetti. The incident occurred in the States and it was so serious that it became well-known even in other countries. Cassetti killed the baby way before he received money from the wealthy Armstrong family. He then fled the country. The baby's death led to numerous deaths and suicides in the Armstrong's. Such discovery led to the revelation that everyone thought Cassetti has got what he deserved.

Turns out, Poirot learned that, after his sly questioning, all passengers are connected to the Armstrong's; all had motive to kill Cassetti. Poirot then came up with two solutions for M. Bouc to decide which will be the one for Cassetti's murder.

Firstly, a stranger killed Cassetti and then jumped off the train. The heavy snow had covered his escaped trail and thus, it would be impossible to continue the investigation.

Secondly, all 13 passengers were the culprits, but Countess Helena did not take part because she would have been the most suspicious character, so her husband helped her to do her part. This makes 12 murderers, each of them having the chance to stab Cassetti. The number of murderers resembles a self-appointed jury. They helped each other by giving conspired evidence so that everyone of them had good alibi.

Linda Arden, Daisy's grandmother, impersonating Mrs Hubbard, admitted that the second solution is the correct one. She explained that they had planned this all along because Cassetti had escaped justice and they had to take the matters into their own hands as everyone had suffered because of Cassetti.

At this point, I was so astonished, my heart was beating so hard against my chest. This was a conspiracy. A close-to-perfect revenge. The passengers were genius. I couldn't help admiring Mrs Hubbard aka Linda Arden. As if I was not surprised enough, M. Bouc actually chose the first solution to close the case!!! I don't think anyone would have ever seen this coming. NO ONE. This makes the book 5/5. I don't think I have ever read any book like MOTOE. No wonder it's one of Agatha Christie's famous detective books.

Here's a list of the 13 passengers on Orient Express, including the train conductor, who were all connected to the Armstrong's:

Mrs Linda Hubbart (Talkative American lady): Real name is Linda Arden, Daisy Armstrong's grandmother, a famous actress in New York.
Hector MacQueen (Young secretary of Mr Rachett/Cassetti): He was in love with Daisy Armstrong's mother, Sonia Armstrong, who died after the heavy interrogation.
Edward Henry Masterman (Cassetti's valet): Batman of Colonel Armstrong (Daisy Armstrong's father), who later became the Armstrong's butler.
Colonel John Arbuthnot: Colonel Armstrong's best-friend.
Countess Helena: Sister of Sonia Armstrong, auntie of Daisy Armstrong.
Count Rudolph: Husband of Helena.
Princess Dragomiroff (Russian princess): A friend of Sonia Armstrong's mother.
Miss Mary Debenham (English lady): Daisy Armstrong's governess.
Fraulein Hildegarde: Cook in Armstrong's household.
Antonio Foscarelli (Italian car salesman): Armstrong's chauffeur.
Gretta Ohlsson (Swedish missionary): Daisy Armstrong's nurse.
Pierre Michel (Train conductor): Father of Susanne, the maid who committed suicide after being suspected as the kidnapper of Daisy Armstrong.
Cyprus Hardman (The private detective): A policeman who was in love with Susanne.