Murder on the Orient Express
Ratings820
Average rating4.1
Even though I already knew the story, this was so much fun to read. The thing about Christie is she doesn't just plot whodunnits well, she is a wonderful writer all around. Everyone is a fleshed out human, there's good interplay (as always) between Poirot and his sidekick, and in the end this is a profoundly human story, not just a puzzle box.
Absolutely loved it! My first Agatha Christie and therefore my first Poirot. Not exactly a whodunit as I'd seen the films and knew the story (is there anyone who doesn't). Perfectly quaint, a snapshot of an age that probably was nothing like this for the majority of people, with a magnificent cast of varied characters. Hugely enjoyable escapism, I shall definitely be reading more of her work.
People love this one—and I can see why! It's intriguing and mysterious, with a nice and unexpected, yet satisfying, ending to boot. Do I love it? This kind of story unfortunately doesn't seem to work for me: the investigation takes too long, the exposition feels too much. I find myself bored out of my mind with all the interviews and testimonies and guesses. Happy it's over :)
Brilliant and fun, keeps you guessing throughout but doesn't feel gimmicky. My favorite mystery
Lovedddd it!! Now I see why this book that was pub in 1934 is still hyped...that ending? *chefs kissIt had all the things I love in a book; Winter setting ✔️A murder to solve ✔️And a special bonus in this one: Hercule poirot (If you have read [a:Enid Blyton 10657 Enid Blyton https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1298204474p2/10657.jpg]'s the five find outers series, Fatty who is the leader of the five find outers is just like Hercule poirot, he sees clues other people miss, he is able to pick out little details and is able to solve the case so reading this one felt like reading one of the five find outers books except for a bigger audience and I enjoyed it!)But it was a bit slow for me coz the writing was a bit hard to understand but other than that no issues...Highly recommend!
Being tucked into bed with your teddy bear on a blustery evening and being told your favorite bedtime story for the 97th time, setting the reset button in your mind so you can hear it again for the first time; it's that sort of feeling. Despite already knowing the ending, having seen the many film iterations, I still enjoyed the ride. Some will cry about its lack of action or character development, but I couldn't help playing all the character parts in my mind as I read it because the story is, as Poirot says, theatrical, and that's just pure fun!
I'd never read anything by Agatha Christie before because I'm not generally that into mysteries/murder/etc, but I picked this up for book club and was pleasantly surprised. It's not very murder-y but it is extremely goofy and fun. Also I really enjoyed the very specific 20th century European stereotypes everyone was dropping at every turn.
I had an interesting experience with this book because I've been meaning to read it for a long time and didn't know much about the plot besides the setup... until just a few months ago where the whodunnit was casually spoiled for me in a Reddit comment or something like that. Which was a number, but reading through this was fun in the same way as rereading a mystery and looking to see where the clues for, which is something I rarely do.
I'm going to keep this next part vague as to not spoil anything, but when I got to the end I realized that there was an aspect to the spoiler I read that wasn't made clear to me, so the reveal still kind of caught me by surprise, which was neat.
Anyways, I really enjoyed this overall. The writing is really sharp, especially the characterizations, though that may be in big part due to the excellent narration by David Suchet in the audiobook I listened to. Every character has a unique voice and is just fun to spend time with. There's definitely some dated racial and sexist profiling going on in some of the theories, but the book was written in 1934 so it's easier to forgive.
At times the story just feels like a full length riddle or something, most of it consists of interviews with the suspects after the murder had taken place. There is very little action happening or anything like that, it's all just deduction. It's still very entertaining and is clearly an early mould of those types of riddles and stories that have come since.
I'll have to check out some more of Agatha Christie's work soon.
This was my first Agatha Christie book and I was intrigued! This was great.
Review coming very soon. I have to gather my thoughts and write them out.
Listened to the audiobook and Dan Stevens does an amazing narration. Really enjoyable.
I'm actually really surprised by how much I liked this one! I don't usually love detective stories. But I really liked how everything was laid out and explained here and thought the conclusion was super satisfying.
4,5
Woooow me encanta cuando al final te lo explican todo y al principio todo parecía super desconectado
Short, sharp and funny murder mystery. Interesting to read the now clichéd who dunnit tropes as well.
NOTE: This review contains no spoilers of the resolution of the book's crime. It does contain some very vague details about the end, I'll make sure to mark it.
I'm someone who has never read Agatha Christie, and only knew of her books and their content purely from cultural osmosis. I wouldn't even really consider myself much of a mystery aficionado. I've read a few here and there. I decided to read Murder on the Orient Express more out of curiosity than anything. I wanted a simple but still engaging read, and I wanted to check out this mystery classic for myself. So, I say this as someone who is coming in blind and ignorant, this was a very engaging read. I was surprised at how hooked I was, and how invested I was into the story. Now I can see why people hail Christie as such a staple of the series, and this makes me excited to read more books of hers.
Onto the book itself, there's one thing I want to reccommend to people who were in a similar boat as me and haven't read much of Christie: GO INTO THIS BOOK BLIND. I ruined the potential experience of reading “And Then There Were None” by her as well since my overly curious self decided it was a good idea to read the Wikipedia spoiler. This one I decided to do that, and it made a huge difference. Be very cautious when you even type this book into a search engine, because just the previews of the search results could potentially spoil it. Not knowing who the real perpetrator is and going along with the clues as the story progresses is what makes these books so good.
I really admired the coziness of this book. It made for a nice and comforting read. I feel it's a more recent trend of mystery books to have everything to evolve into a conspiracy or there to be an absolutely huge, story-shattering plot twist. Not that these are necessarily bad things, but there's something nice about reading a straight-forward mystery that stays within its confines. The crime takes place in one location (on a train) and has a concise and steady cast throughout the entire story. It's well-contained, and made it easier for me to follow along as well.
This is really one of those mysteries where you can't help but follow along as well. With the way it's written, the way the crime is laid out, and the way the characters and cast are handled, I actually started to mentally take my own notes and think about who I suspected the strongest. Of course, more clues get discovered and then your suspicions start to change...I especially appreciate how Poirot and his colleagues go over the case and details near the end. It's like a way to make a final guess before the final reveal. Seeing the reveal after reading through the entire crime and how it transpired was actually something of an experience. It's nice to feel how engaged I can get with this story!
Some minor hang-ups/complaints that I have: There's a ton of French, and I'm someone who struggles a lot with that language. If you're like me, it'd be good to have a translator open or something like that. Another thing is that this book was written in 1934, and as to be expected, it dates itself. It has a lot of casual racial stereotyping.
(Note: I talk about the ending here, but only vague details and nothing that spoils the story.)
I think the biggest shock for me was how abrupt the ending was. It ends pretty much right after the final reveal. I actually went to double-check to make sure if it was an edition thing or if my personal copy was just like that. I'm really surprised there was no epilogue, no kind of follow-up? Especially since I felt there would've been so much to explore and more closure after everything transpired. I've read in other places that since the crime was over and solved, there's no need to know any more than that. I disagree personally. While the biggest question of “whodunnit?” had been answered, there were a lot more smaller questions I had pop up about the aftermath. It gave me a slight feeling of dissatisfaction, but I guess it's mitigated by solving the crime.
(Done with ending discussion)
I can see why this book has pretty much cemented itself in Western culture. It's crazy to reflect on how this entire book is a trope that gets used in so many different pieces of media. How many times do you see the scenario of “crime happens on a small contained space (like a train) and everyone is a suspect who gets interviewed”? If you're new to mystery or want to check out a classic, I recommend “Murder on the Orient Express.” Even though it's the tenth in a series, you won't miss out on any kind of necessary previous information.
Había olvidado lo bueno que es este libro. Uno de los mejores de misterio que he leído.
Enjoyed this, unexpected ending and I enjoyed the way things unfolded. The first Poirot/Christie book I've read and a change of scene from my usual reading.
This was a nice mystery novel. I went into this completely blind, I know! amazing. I think, because of that I was able to enjoy this way more than if I had watched the movie, or gone to a local play for it. This was a nice treat to listen to on my commute to work this week. I can't wait to read some more by Agatha Christie.