I remember being 14 and working my way through the Sherlock Holmes canon and wondering what other detective stories were out there that I could read. A wonderful librarian suggested that I check out the works of Agatha Christie. The very first book I picked out was Murder on the Orient Express. Since then, I have become a lifelong fan of the quirkily awesome Hercule Poirot.
The atmosphere of the book is well done. You can almost feel the sense of claustrophobia with everyone snowed in on the train. You can feel the tension slowly rising as they try to find the murderer, knowing once the train starts and the passengers get off, they will probably never be able to find them. And you start to wonder if the stress of different passengers is from being snowed in with a murderer, or being the snowed in murderer who can't get away.
But what really pulls the mystery together though is Christie's wonderful gift for skillful misdirection. I had not heard of this book before I read it, and I was left guessing all the way up to the end who had done it. I nearly dropped the book in shock when the guilty party was revealed! I won't spoil the surprise if you don't know who done it, but I will say it is one of my favorite reveals of all time. And it was so obvious on a re-read through! That's the sign of a good mystery writer though. Everything is right there under your nose, so you slap your forehead when the reveal comes.
Also, this is one of the few books where I do not mind the Karma Houdini at the end. Normally I dislike it greatly when a detective decides to let the bad guy get away. But Christie does such an excellent job of showing just how odious the victim was, you almost cheer for the guilty. And while I still don't like letting the "bad guy" go, it was one of the few cases, where, like Poirot, I was willing to turn a blind eye.
All in all this was an excellent read and I heartily recommend it to fans of good mysteries, or just fans of good literature in general.
Literature One of the Best Murder Mysteries of All Time
I remember being 14 and working my way through the Sherlock Holmes canon and wondering what other detective stories were out there that I could read. A wonderful librarian suggested that I check out the works of Agatha Christie. The very first book I picked out was Murder on the Orient Express. Since then, I have become a lifelong fan of the quirkily awesome Hercule Poirot.
The atmosphere of the book is well done. You can almost feel the sense of claustrophobia with everyone snowed in on the train. You can feel the tension slowly rising as they try to find the murderer, knowing once the train starts and the passengers get off, they will probably never be able to find them. And you start to wonder if the stress of different passengers is from being snowed in with a murderer, or being the snowed in murderer who can't get away.
But what really pulls the mystery together though is Christie's wonderful gift for skillful misdirection. I had not heard of this book before I read it, and I was left guessing all the way up to the end who had done it. I nearly dropped the book in shock when the guilty party was revealed! I won't spoil the surprise if you don't know who done it, but I will say it is one of my favorite reveals of all time. And it was so obvious on a re-read through! That's the sign of a good mystery writer though. Everything is right there under your nose, so you slap your forehead when the reveal comes.
Also, this is one of the few books where I do not mind the Karma Houdini at the end. Normally I dislike it greatly when a detective decides to let the bad guy get away. But Christie does such an excellent job of showing just how odious the victim was, you almost cheer for the guilty. And while I still don't like letting the "bad guy" go, it was one of the few cases, where, like Poirot, I was willing to turn a blind eye.
All in all this was an excellent read and I heartily recommend it to fans of good mysteries, or just fans of good literature in general.