History Literature / MurderOnTheOrientExpress

Franchise/HerculePoirot, the famous Belgian detective, is ready to return from a case in Syria when he is snowbound on the Orient Express. He is disturbed in his sleep by dead quiet and a passing figure in a red kimono, and when he awakes, a male passenger named Samuel Ratchett is found dead, having been stabbed 12 times. Poirot discovers he was actually a notorious American gangster named Lanfranco Cassetti, who had kidnapped and murdered a three-year-old heiress. The mystery begins to unravel as he discovers that 12 of the other 14 passengers and the Train's conductor have connections to the dead man and the family of the child that man murdered.

* EverybodyDidIt: Everyone on the train [[spoiler:except the detectives is part of an elaborate conspiracy to execute the victim. The original idea was to provide themselves with an interlocking net of alibis, such that guilt could never settle on any one of them and it would be assumed that someone from outside the train did it. If it hadn't been for a ClosedCircle snowdrift cutting off the hypothetical murderer's escape, it might have worked.]] Moreover, the presence of all the suspects is a clue in itself: the murder takes place during a "dead season" for the railway, and yet ''every'' berth in the sleeping car is occupied. Similarly, [[spoiler:each of the twelve conspirators stabbed Cassetti once in rapid succession, specifically so that there would be no way to determine which of them had struck the blow that actually killed Cassetti and they would all equally bear the responsibility.]]

* TheButlerDidIt:
** [[spoiler:He was ''one'' of the people who did it, that is.]] Also spoken word-for-word in the 1974 film, but as part of a RunningGag by the line owner always implicating the most recent interviewee.

* DownerBeginning: ''DAISY FOUND SLAIN'' in the 1974 adaptation.

* LivingProp: There's also the cook (plus any waiters or attendants) and the drivers of the train technically on board. But they never come under suspicion even as an option to be immediately rejected.

* MamaBear: [[spoiler: The real mastermind of the affair was Linda Arden, a.k.a Mrs. Hubbard, who did it to avenge her daughter and granddaughter (as well as to prevent Cassetti's killing any more children).]]

* MoneyIsNotPower: Cassetti finds out the hard way that his ill-gotten wealth can't protect him from revenge. He tries to pay Poirot for help, but the detective senses the man is no good and refuses. In the 1974 movie, Poirot says he takes cases that interest him and the interest in this one is dwindling.

* [[MultinationalTeam Multinational Cast]]: A French train crew, plus a few English, some Americans (one Italian-born), a Swede, a German, a Russian princess, and a Hungarian diplomatic couple, plus a Greek doctor and a Belgian detective and Wagon-Lits Company director. [[spoiler: And every nationality but the last three conspired in the killing.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Hinted at by Poirot who is not exactly happy with his SadisticChoice. In the David Suchet version, he pulls his rosary out of his pocket, indicating he feels guilt for his final decision in the story.
* NiceGuy: M. Bouc[=/=]Signor Bianchi. He was generous enough to offer Poirot a free first class ticket.
* NoodleIncident: The case Poirot was working on before leaving Syria at the start of the book. All that is said is that it involved the suicide of a colonel, the resignation of a general, and that Poirot's efforts "saved the honor of the French Army."

-->'''Poirot:''' There are too many clues in this room.

* PleaseSelectNewCityName: The train departs Istanbul, but [=MacQueen=] calls it Constantinople. Although in common usage long before the book was published, it was only made the official name in 1933.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Monsieur Bouc[=/=]Signor Bianchi.

* RetiredMonster: Ratchett is an American expatriate living in Europe where he invests in antiquing. [[spoiler: He is in fact Lanfranco Cassetti, a gangster and the ruthless murderer of Daisy Armstrong, having gotten away with the ransom money.]]

* RunningGag: "He/she did it!" after Poirot has interviewed one of the suspects in the 1974 adaptation.

* SherlockScan: An odd example -- Poirot is somehow able to intuit that a suspect previously worked as a cook thanks to his "nose for fine dining" and saying something that would only make sense if she'd been a cook before.

* SympatheticMurderer: [[spoiler: Basically everyone who's not Poirot, Bouc, Constantine or [[AssholeVictim Ratchett]] is one of these. They've all witnessed the tragedy wrought by Ratchett/Cassetti's kidnapping of Daisy Armstrong, and they're seeking to bring him to justice after he got OffOnATechnicality.]]

* TranquilFury: [[GrandeDame Princess Dragomiroff]] explains to Poirot that she would have liked Ratchett to be whipped to the death by her servants ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellation#From_Middle_Ages_to_modern_times a real punishment]] in UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia). Poirot states that the Princess' strength lies in her will, not her hands. [[spoiler: And indeed the Princess' stab was among the most feeble, but nevertheless the will of killing Cassetti was granitic.]]