Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Murder on the Orient Express

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Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

50 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. This is the twentieth book on this list. I cannot believe I am twenty percent in on this journey. I thought I was going to struggle with this book with it being a classic, but it was very enjoyable.

This book is based on Hercule Poirot. He is traveling on the Orient Express and is approached by a desperate American named Ratchett. He is afraid that someone is going to kill him and goes to Poirot for help. Sadly, the next day Ratchett’s worst fears become reality, when he is found dead in his cabin, a victim of multiple stab wounds. With nothing but a scrap of paper to go on, Poirot must piece together Ratchett’s identity before he can find out which of his fellow passengers murdered him.

I will always love crime books and the mystery of figuring out who commit the crime. I think the mystery is enough to keep you hooked. I liked the fact that it is split into parts and it’s not a very big book, it feels like Poirot is sat next to you talking about the case and what his thoughts are. My favourite bits of any mystery book is when the penny finally drops and you know who commit the crime, which in this case happened at the end of the book which slightly annoyed me because I wanted to see if there was going to be any outcome and what was going to happen to the suspect after the case had been solved. I love Poirot, I think he was so level-headed and yet his brain was working a thousand miles a minute that the other detectives couldn’t keep up.

I was hoping for some action and some bad guys getting their ass kicked, but obviously with the setting on this book and everyone being so calm, it wasn’t like there was a need for anyone’s ass to be kicked. This book ended with me having questions regarding the suspects. I would like answers please, I would have liked for there to be multiple POVs with the killers talking and planning so that we knew what they were thinking, I just wanted to be inside their head during the final chapter.

I enjoyed this book and managed to finish it quite quickly. For my first book I read written by Agathe Christie, it has set my expectations pretty high for her next work that I might read.

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meyn's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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hannahcstocks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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24carrotgay's review

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

agatha christie is a genius. i had seen the movie a couple of years ago and loved it, but the book was still an emotional mystery with twists and turns in every direction. this was my first poirot book, and certainly not my last!

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library_m0use's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

lottebluebird's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

ed_moore's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ follows Christie’s detective Poriot as he attempts to deduce which of the 12 passengers trapped in the carriages of the Orient Express due to heavy snow murdered the upper class American Mr Ratchett. It was a murder mystery full of seemingly obvious red herrings and planted clues, asking the reader to question the relevance of much of it, and where every passenger seems to have a sound alibi. From the start of the book, the classic murder mystery twist was unexpected (and I was so confident knowing how twists typically worked that I had deduced a suspect and such individual remained unchanged for at least two thirds of the book), whereas come the final third, pre-twist it became quite clear.

Though cleverly crafted, there were many elements in the deduction that I didn’t enjoy so much, such as the focus on nationality and whether someone from such country is ‘that type’ being the go-to evidence in deciding the identity of the murderer. Christie stereotyped many individuals by nationality and even in the solution did not challenge them. This being a successful means of cracking a murder case seemed highly unrealistic. There was also a lot of French dotted throughout the novel, it being the born language of the detective Poriot, whereas my ignorance in not knowing any French left me just trying to guess Poriot’s remarks at some points, and though these had no effect on the plot it was a minor frustration, I can only blame myself for such however.

‘Murder on the Orient Express’ was somehow both a surprising and obvious murder mystery, with glaring issues but all in all deserving of its legacy as one of the most well known crime novels in literature. I can’t claim that I didn’t enjoy it despite its flaws.

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