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Murder on the Orient Express

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For other uses, see Murder on the Orient Express (disambiguation).
Murder on the Orient Express
”Cover of “Murder on the Orient Express””
Cover of a current edition
AuthorAgatha Christie
LanguageEnglish
SeriesHercule Poirot
GenreMystery, Detective novel
PublisherCollins Crime Club
Publication date
1934
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages322
ISBNNA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Preceded byLord Edgware Dies 
Followed byThree Act Tragedy 

Murder on the Orient Express (London: Collins, 1934) also called Murder on the Calais Coach (New York: Dodd Mead, 1934) is a 1934 novel by Agatha Christie. Widely considered Christie's most famous novel, it stars brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

The book was first published in Saturday Evening Post, from July 1 to September 30, 1933.


Characters

The Victim:

  • Mr. Ratchett, an unsavory-looking man with a dark secret.

The thirteen suspects:

  • Hector McQueen, a tall, handsome, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator.
  • Edward Henry Masterman, the victim's British valet.
  • Pierre Michel, the French conductor of the Calais coach.
  • Mary Debenham, a tall, dark, young British woman, working as a governess in Baghdad.
  • Colonel Arbuthnot, a tall British army officer returning from India.
  • Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, an elderly and very ugly Russian grande dame.
  • Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged German woman, the Princess' lady's maid
  • Count Rudolf Andrenyi, a tall, dark Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France.
  • Countess Elena Andrenyi, née Goldenberg, his pale young wife.
  • Greta Ohlsson, a middle-aged blonde Swedish missionary returning home for a vacation.
  • Mrs. Caroline Martha Hubbard, a plump, elderly, very excitable American returning from a visit to her daughter, a teacher in Baghdad.
  • Antonio Foscarelli, a portly and exuberant Italian businessman.
  • Cyrus Hardman, a large and gregarious Texan typewriter ribbon salesman.

Other main characters (known to the reader to be uninvolved in the crime):

  • The Detective - Hercule Poirot
  • The Director - M. Bouc
  • The Doctor - Dr. Constantine

Plot Details

Poirot boards the Orient Express, which is unusually crowded. After a pleasant dinner and retiring to his bed, a murder is committed. M. Ratchett was murdered that night, but who did it? Poirot agrees to find out.

Poirot finds several clues in the victim's cabin and on board the coach, suggesting that the murderer or murderers were somewhat sloppy; however, each clue seemingly points to different suspects. Poirot soon discovers that M. Ratchett was in fact a notorious fugitive from U.S. justice named Cassetti. Some years earlier, Cassetti had kidnapped three-year-old heiress Daisy Armstrong. Though the Armstrong family paid a huge ransom for Daisy's release, Cassetti murdered the little girl anyway and fled the country with the money. Daisy's mother, Sonia Armstrong was pregnant when she heard of Daisy's death. Her child died prematurely. She herself died as a result of the shock. Her husband, Col. Armstrong shot himself out of grief. Daisy's maid, Susanne, was suspected by the police, despite her hysterics. She threw herself out of the window and died.

One of the crucial clues is provided by Mary who happens to travel on the same train as Poirot on the way to the Orient express. Mary is very worried about delay on this first train, but is unconcerned when the Orient express itself is delayed. Poirot is able to conclude that there was a preplanned meeting on the Orient express.

As the evidence mounts, it continues to point in wildly different directions. A critical piece of missing evidence -- a red kimono worn the night of the murder by an unknown woman briefly witnessed in the coach corridor by Poirot and others -- turns up in Poirot's own luggage. Poirot discovers that some passengers had a connection to the victim, while others a connection to the Armstrong family. After meditating on the evidence for some time, Poirot assembles the thirteen suspects, plus M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine, in the restaurant car where he lays out two possible explanations of Ratchett's murder.

The Armstrong case was based on the actual kipnapping of Charles Lindbergh son.

The Denouement

In the first scenario, explains Poirot, a stranger entered the train during the previous stop at Vincovci, murdered Ratchett for reasons unknown, and escaped unnoticed. The crime occurred an hour earlier than everyone believed owing to the victim and several others failing to note that the train had just crossed time zones. The other noises heard by Poirot on the coach that evening were unrelated to the murder.

In the second scenario, Poirot explains painstakingly, all of the suspects were guilty, as there was no other way the murder could have taken place under the evidence. Poirot reveals that the other passengers, most of whom were traveling under assumed names, were in fact members of the extended Armstrong family, or had a very close tie to the family or its servants. All had been gravely wounded by Daisy's murder. They took it into their own hands to serve as Cassetti's executioners to avenge a crime the law was unable to punish. Each of the suspects stabbed Ratchett once, so that no one could know who delivered the fatal blow. Twelve of the conspirators participated to allow for a "12-person jury", with only Countess Andrenyi not participating as she would have been the most likely suspect (as Daisy's aunt). One extra berth was booked under a fictitious name (the cabin next to Ratchett was already reserved for a director of the company) so no one other than the conspirators and the victim would be on the train that night. The unexpected stoppage in the snowbank, and the fact that the carriage company had allowed the famous Poirot to sleep in the cabin that had been reserved for the fictitious person, caused complications to the conspirators that resulted in several crucial clues being left behind. As Poirot reveals the details of the elaborate plot, many of the suspects (among them Daisy's aunt and grandmother) break down in tears.

Poirot agrees to let Dr. Constantine and M.Bouc decide which of his two theories is correct. After a brief pause, both state softly that the first explanation seems far the more plausible, and is the one they will give to the police when the freed train reaches the next station. The thirteen suspects are allowed to walk free, and the true circumstances of Ratchett's death presumably remain secret forever.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Video game adaptation

Release details

  • 1934, UK, Collins Crime Club (ISBN NA), Pub date ? ? 1934, hardback (first edition)
  • 2004, USA, Berkley Publishing (ISBN 0-425-20045-0), Pub date ? Sep 2004, mass market paperback
  • 2006, UK, HarperCollins (ISBN 0-7921-0484-6), Pub date 4 Sep 2006, hardcover

See also

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