Book Review: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

A much-loathed man is found murdered with multiple stab wounds on the luxurious Orient Express with 13 potential suspects. Who did it?

“If you will forgive me for being personal - I do not like your face.”

If you will forgive me for being personal... but I do not like YOUR face, Poirot. I’m sorry, Christie... it’s not you, it’s me. I can fully appreciate that Agatha Christie is the Queen of Crime - the level of detail and planning that obviously goes into constructing such complex crime scenes and investigation work is impressive, but it’s really not to my personal taste.

The premise is exciting enough - all these strangers stuck on a train that has been sidelined by heavy snow and one of them is found murdered in his compartment - but that’s really where the intrigue ends for me. It felt very formulaic, which if all Christies are like this, I don’t think I could face another. The middle section in particular where Poirot interviews each of the passengers had me bored out of my skull! And the ending... I hated it so much, I rolled my eyes so hard I went partially blind!

As for Poirot himself, I cannot abide him! So self-congratulatory and smug at times. I also don’t like to have to work this hard when I’m reading FOR FUN. I felt like I was back in the lab searching through data and trying to keep the details straight in my head of who was where at what time and for how long.

I feel like I might be exiled from bookstagram/goodreads by all the Christie lovers, so please accept my sincerest apologies... Christie is clearly great at what she does, but it’s not my cup of tea. 2 stars.

Johann
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Comments

  1. S.E. White Books13 January 2019 at 01:08

    Bahaha, no, I feel you. I enjoy some of Christie's mysteries but I've not really gotten into Poirot. And Then There Were None remains my top favorite Christie novel because the tension drives after the initial set-up and it just doesn't let up! If you're in the mood to try her again someday, I'd really recommend that one. Bonus, no Poirot in that one! haha

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