| Hercule Poirot is a private detective. He is summoned to London to solve a case and boards the Orient Express, securing a first class compartment, through his friend M. Bouc. Once aboard the train a passenger, who is traveling under the name of Rachett, asks him to make sure he survives through a possible attempt to end his life. Mr. Poirot refuses and soon after Rachett is murdered. While the train is stuck in a snow bank, M. Bouc asks Poirot to take on the case and find the murder.
When Poirot takes on the case he finds incriminating clues such as a pipe cleaner and a button from a Wagon Lit conductor uniform. These two make it seem as if Colonel Arbuthnot and Pierre Michel both took part in the murder. The description of the murder by the Greek doctor, Dr. Constantine, showed that Rachett had been stabbed repeatedly to a total of twelve times all with varying amount strength. Due to further investigation of the room Hercule Poriot finds a burnt piece of paper linking this murder to a crime, which had happened years ago in America. It was the Armstrong case, where a man named Cassetti had kidnapped and killed a baby leading to a string of deaths, including the baby's mother, father, and nursery maid. Hercule Poriot questions all the people on the train and finds that the murder went into Rachett's room and killed the drugged man and snuck out through Mrs. Hubbards room and awakened her. Then he or she snuck into their room before the Matron was able to call for the Wagon Lit, Pierre Michel. Then he begins to notice certain factors relating the set of passengers to the people who took part in the Armstrong case. He suspicions are most aroused when Princess Dragomiroff claimed to be Sonia Armstrong's godmother and the close friend of Linda Arden. Despite the fact that some of his information is false because of the loyalties on the train, Poirot makes a valiant attempt to solve the mystery before the snow melts and it is left to the idiotic police. This book is a very good read. It is interesting and descriptive with a lot of interesting dialogue. There is great characterization of the stereotypes of each nationality. It is a fun, easy but exciting and shows the real intelligence, which is needed to solve these cases. | ||
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Plot & Themes How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given Time/era of story: What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 90% Murder of certain profession? Misc. Murder Plotlets - Big focus on autopsies - Killer purposely leaves clues Kind of investigator Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book descript. of violence and chases - 10 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 40's-50's Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Female Age: - 20's-30's Profession/status: Motive of antagonist - revenge How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Setting Europe Yes European country: - Eastern Europe Misc setting - moving train Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript |
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