November Book Club: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Welcome to the first post of the Bibliotherapy Monthly Book Club! At the end of every month, I will make a post ranting and raving (and possibly complaining) about a book. If you want to participate in the Monthly Book Club, I will announce which book we are reading at the beginning of every month on Instagram. Keep an eye out for the next book club announcement in December! BEWARE: Spoilers ahead!
November Book Club: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
I picked this classic Christie novel for this month’s book club, because 1) it’s great, and 2) the movie came out this month. (Can we just…Johnny Depp…) I will be reviewing the movie as well, but for now, on to the book!
Murder on the Orient Express is about a murder. On a train. Detective Hercule Poirot is called back to London, and upon boarding the Orient Express, he finds it filled with passengers from all over the world. One night, the train crashes into a snowdrift, leaving it stranded. Upon waking, Poirot and the others learn that a fellow passenger Edward Ratchett has been murdered. Due to the weather and the surrounding mountains, escape from the train is impossible. Knowing the murderer is still on the train, Poirot begins his investigation.
This was my first time reading a Christie novel, and it did not disappoint. Hercule Poirot is an incredibly definitive character, and I fell in love with him from the very beginning. The scene on the train platform where Poirot and Lieutenant Dubosc are rambling to each other to avoid an awkward silence gave me life. Poirot is a Belgian Sherlock Holmes with a crazy mustache. Throughout the book, he flaunts his crazy deduction skills, but he also knows how to play the social and emotional game. Once you reach the finale, you see that every move he makes is calculated, and I freaking love it.
Christie’s novel has a great cast of characters, and she did a great job of making each of them distinct. This was so frustrating, because I tried to solve the case as I read AND THEY WERE ALL SO SUSPICIOUS. Here is a list of the passengers:
Edward Ratchett: American businessman, and the murder victim
Hector McQueen: Ratchett’s personal secretary
Edward Masterman: Ratchett’s valet
Mary Debenham: English governess traveling back from Baghdad
Caroline Hubbard: Fussy American woman who really likes to talk about her daughter
Colonel Arbuthnot: English colonel who has a suspicious conversation with Mary
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff: Russian princess
Hildegarde Schmidt: the Princess’ maid
Count Andrenyi: a Hungarian count
Countess Andrenyi: a Hungarian countess
Cyrus Hardman: an American who sells typewriter ribbons
Antonio Foscanelli: a vivacious Italian who immigrated to the US
Greta Ohlsson: a Swedish nurse
Other characters include Monsier Bouc (Poirot’s friend and director of the train company), Dr. Constantine (a coroner from Greece), and Pierre Michel (a conductor). Bouc and Constantine interview the passengers with Poirot and help him solve the case. Okay, does this bother anyone else? Bouc was way too friendly, and I found him kind of suspicious. If anyone knew the ins and outs of the train and how to commit a murder on it, it would be the director of the train company.
Regardless, Poirot interviews all of the passengers, gets their information, and then he inspects Ratchett’s room. In the room, he finds the remains of a burnt letter, which reads, “…Remember little Daisy Armstrong.” Daisy Armstrong was an American girl who was kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered. What does that have to do with a man on a train stranded in the snowy mountains of Europe? DUN DUN DUN, Ratchett’s real name is Casetti, the man who kidnapped and murdered Daisy. Casual. I thought the motive for the murder was pretty interesting, and the story the Armstrong family killed me. Turns out, after the death of their daughter, Mrs. Armstrong became pregnant, but the child was born prematurely; she and the baby both died in childbirth. Heartbroken, Daisy’s father, a British colonel, committed suicide. One of Daisy’s nurses, a French girl, was suspected, and she became so distressed that she, too, committed suicide. Ugh, this poor family. It’s fine, Agatha, take my heart and squeeze it.
Poirot also found a pipe cleaner, a button from a conductor’s uniform, and a handkerchief embroidered with the letter “H.” He interviews all the passengers again to see if any of them had known the Armstrong family, which they all denied, except Princess Dragomiroff. She admitted to being a friend of Daisy’s grandmother, the famous actress Linda Arden. She is also Daisy’s mother’s godmother.
Throughout Poirot’s investigation, I had so many questions. What about the passengers in the other coaches? What about the rest of the train staff? What if Ratchett isn’t Casetti? What if the murderer did leave the train, and his tracks were covered by snowfall? Poirot made a lot of assumptions about who was involved and where the killer went, but he figured it out, so that’s fine…I guess.
***EXTRA BIG SPOILERS AHEAD
Let’s talk about who all these passengers really are and why it blew my freaking mind:
Ratchett: He is actually Casetti. He killed Daisy and ran to Europe to escape punishment.
MacQueen: His father was the District Attorney in the Armstrong case, and he loved Daisy’s mother. He was the one who burned the letter in Ratchett’s compartment.
Masterman: Colonel Armstrong’s batman in the war
Mary: Daisy Armstrong’s governess
Caroline Hubbard: Actually the actress Linda Arden, Daisy’s grandmother
Colonel Arbuthnot: Colonel Armstrong’s bff
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff: Exactly who she said she is; friend of Linda Arden, godmother to Sonia Armstrong
Hildegarde Schmidt: the Armstrongs’ cook
Countess Andrenyi: Helena, Daisy’s aunt
Count Andrenyi: Knew the Armstrongs through his wife
Cyrus Hardman: A detective from New York who was in love with the French nurse who committed suicide
Antonio Foscanelli: the Armstrongs’ chauffer
Greta Ohlsson: Daisy’s nurse.
Pierre Michel: He is actually a conductor, but he is also the father of the French nurse
What now??? After the first few people confessed to their connections with the Armstrong family, I was like, “DOES EVERYONE KNOW THE ARMSTRONGS???” The answer is, yes, they do, and they were all in on the murder. Masterman, the valet, drugged Ratchett with a sleeping draught and, one by one, the passengers snuck into Ratchett’s compartment and stabbed him a total of 12 times. Honestly, I started suspecting they were all in on it about half way into the book, but I did not expect that they all literally stabbed him individually. I’m kind of impressed that all of these people worked out the plan to get MacQueen and Masterman to work for Ratchett, then all get on this train, kill a man, plant evidence to throw off the investigation, and come up with pretty concrete alibis for each other.
And then Poirot is like, “I knew all along, I just wanted to test a theory.” Sly dog.
I really loved the ending. Poirot, Bouc, and Constantine decide to tell the police that the murderer escaped, given that all of these people were avenging the murder of a child. Justice is served. I would like to know what happens after. How much longer is the train stuck in this snowdrift? What do they do with the body? Is it just chilling there until the train arrives at the next platform? Do the passengers just go their separate ways and never speak of the murder, or do they start meeting every Tuesday for brunch like, “Remember when we killed that guy? That was great.”
Anyway, yeah, I loved it. I will definitely be reading more of the Hercule Poirot series. What did you think? Who did you suspect? Did the ending surprise you?
