Information about Murder On The Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express

Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
Author	Agatha Christie
Cover artist	Not known
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Crime novel
Publisher	Collins Crime Club
Publication date	January 1934
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	256 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	The Hound of Death
Followed by	Unfinished Portrait

Murder on the Orient Express is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1934, in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company and later in the same year under the title of Murder in the Calais Coach. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence. The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

The book was first serialized in the US in the 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. Poirot's stragedy in her questioning is a complete contrast of Debenham's. Poirot is kind and one of the questions comes in the form of a compliment.
• Count Rudolf Andrenyi, a tall, dark Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France.
• Countess Helena 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, a train which is unusually crowded for the time of year. After having dinner and retiring to his bed, M. Ratchett is murdered.

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 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 large ransom for Daisy's release, Cassetti murdered the little girl regardless 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 scarlet 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 kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son.)

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.

Literary significance and reception

The Times Literary Supplement of January 11, 1934 outlined the plot and concluded that "The little grey cells solve once more the seemingly insoluble. Mrs Christie makes an improbable tale very real, and keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end."

Release details

• 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

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• The book was made into a 1974 movie entitled Murder on the Orient Express starring Albert Finney as Poirot, with Ingrid Bergman receiving her third Academy Award, as best supporting actress in the role of the Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson.
• Murder on the Orient Express is a made-for-television film was first aired in 2001.
• David Suchet will star as Poirot in an upcoming adaptation as part of the ongoing Agatha Christie's Poirot series in late 2008.

Publishing history

• 1934, Collins Crime Club (London), January 1934, Hardback, 256 pp
• 1934, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1934, Hardback, 302 pp

Video game

• On November 21, 2006, The Adventure Company released a . The game starred David Suchet as the voice of Hercule Poirot.

Comic strip

Murder on the Orient Express was released by HarperCollins as a comic strip adaptation on July 16, 2007, adapted by Francois Riviere and illustrated by Solidor (Jean-François Miniac).

External links

• http://www.all-about-agatha-christie.com/murder-on-the-orient-express.html
• Spark Notes for the book
• Official Website for PC Game

•  • [ e] Works by Agatha Christie
Detectives:	Hercule Poirot • Miss Marple • Tommy and Tuppence • Ariadne Oliver • Arthur Hastings • Superintendent Battle • Chief Inspector Japp • Parker Pyne
Novels:	The Mysterious Affair at Styles • The Secret Adversary • The Murder on the Links • The Man in the Brown Suit • The Secret of Chimneys • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd • The Big Four • The Mystery of the Blue Train • The Seven Dials Mystery • The Murder at the Vicarage • The Sittaford Mystery • Peril at End House • Lord Edgware Dies • Murder on the Orient Express • Three Act Tragedy • Why Didn't They Ask Evans? • Death in the Clouds • The A.B.C. Murders • Murder in Mesopotamia • Cards on the Table • Dumb Witness • Death on the Nile • Appointment with Death • Hercule Poirot's Christmas • Murder is Easy • And Then There Were None • Sad Cypress • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe • Evil Under the Sun • N or M? • The Body in the Library • Five Little Pigs • The Moving Finger • Towards Zero • Death Comes as the End • Sparkling Cyanide • The Hollow • Taken at the Flood • Crooked House • A Murder is Announced • They Came to Baghdad • Mrs McGinty's Dead • They Do It with Mirrors • After the Funeral • A Pocket Full of Rye • Destination Unknown • Hickory Dickory Dock • Dead Man's Folly • 4.50 From Paddington • Ordeal by Innocence • Cat Among the Pigeons • The Pale Horse • The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side • The Clocks • A Caribbean Mystery • At Bertram's Hotel • Third Girl • Endless Night • By the Pricking of My Thumbs • Hallowe'en Party • Passenger to Frankfurt • Nemesis • Elephants Can Remember • Postern of Fate • Curtain • Sleeping Murder
As Mary Westmacott:	Giant's Bread • Unfinished Portrait • Absent in the Spring • The Rose and the Yew Tree • A Daughter's a Daughter • The Burden
Short story collections:	Poirot Investigates • Partners in Crime • The Mysterious Mr. Quin • The Thirteen Problems • The Hound of Death • The Listerdale Mystery • Parker Pyne Investigates • Murder in the Mews • The Regatta Mystery • The Labours of Hercules • The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories • Three Blind Mice and Other Stories • The Under Dog and Other Stories • The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding • Double Sin and Other Stories • The Golden Ball and Other Stories • Poirot's Early Cases • Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories • Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories • The Harlequin Tea Set • While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
Plays:	Black Coffee • And Then There Were None • Appointment with Death • Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon • The Hollow • The Mousetrap • Witness for the Prosecution • Verdict • Rule of Three • Fiddlers Three • Akhnaton
Radio (and Television) Plays:	Three Blind Mice • Butter In a Lordly Dish
Other Published Works:	The Road of Dreams