Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
This was the second Agatha Christie book I ever read and I was just as entertained as I was with And Then There Were None. I know that more of Christie's novels are in my future because she writes such clever and unique mysteries.
A train that is unusually full for winter is travelling from Istanbul to London when it becomes trapped in a snowdrift in a remote region of Croatia. On the following morning an American is found stabbed to death behind the locked door of his room. With no means of moving or reaching the outside world, detective Hercule Poirot and the fellow passengers find themselves trapped in close quarters with everyone as a suspect.
I loved how Hercule Poirot points out certain facts and slowly puts things together for the other authoritative characters, but also for the reader. You almost feel like you are the detective yourself which is pretty fantastic. At times, the fact finding is comical but it always points out something I didn't catch myself. This is how clever Christie is, because the clues are so perfectly subtle and there are so many inconsistencies that you are left guessing until the very end. It was also so interesting to see all he was able to deduce without technology; no DNA, no phone or bank records, no search into people's past.
Just like with And Then There Were None, I listened to an audible version of this book narrated by Dan Stevens and cannot praise the version highly enough. Stevens has a different voice for each of the characters which is about 15 individuals. It's completely insane and impressive.
Synopsis: What more can a mystery addict desire than a much-loathed murder victim found aboard the luxurious Orient Express with multiple stab wounds, thirteen likely suspects, an incomparably brilliant detective in Hercule Poirot, and the most ingenious crime ever conceived?