Another Train, Another Murder.......The Mystery of the Blue Train (The Mystery of the Blue Trai - Agatha Christie)

Member Name: carcraig

Product:	The Mystery of the Blue Trai - Agatha Christie
Date:	31/10/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good plot twists . Well written . Classic Who - Dunnit

Disadvantages: Slight formulaic feel, too similar to other Christie books in parts .

Agatha Christie, widely accepted as the Queen of Crime, was a prolific writer. Only outsold by Shakespeare and the Bible, she has sold over a billion books in English and a further billion in other languages. Her most famous creations are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, representations of whom can be seen regularly on our television screens.


This book features Poirot, the dapper little Belgian detective with his superior powers of deduction and moustache-twirling tendencies.


The plot of The Mystery of the Blue Train did feel slightly formulaic to my mind. A rich American beauty is married to an impoverished English cad, a man with expensive taste, trying to sustain his champagne lifestyle on his "shandy" income, including financing a high-maintenance and demanding mistress.


The American, after persuasion from her very wealthy Daddy, announces her intention to divorce her philandering husband citing his infidelity. She promptly gets murdered and robbed of the ridiculously expensive rubies she had been recently gifted by Daddy whilst on a train journey to meet her lover, another gent of dubious reputation.


Hercule Poirot coincidentally happens to be on the same train (along with her husband and a couple of other potential suspects) and he is called upon to assist the French police in investigating the whole sorry affair.


Throw in a handful of romantic sub-plots, a dash of unrequited love and a smattering of money-grabbing relatives and this somehow begins to feel like a hybrid of "Murder of the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile". There are spinsters, the whole "upstairs/downstairs" divide, inept foreign police and a multitude of red herrings - but nothing really that an avid reader of Agatha Christie won't have come across before.


Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy this book; it's well written with good characterisation and a passable plot. It has the whole wonderful period feel that Christie's book tend to evoke. And it has some good plot twists and I DIDN'T guess the "who-dunnit" outcome until very near to the reveal.


However, I believe I would have relished it more had I not read (and seen) "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile" previously, but having read a good number of Agatha Christie's Poirot books, I was slightly disappointed that this one failed to deliver something original or different. It was written prior to both of those books so it is perhaps my own fault for reading these books out of chronological order. I do feel a bit mean giving such a wonderful writer three stars for this book - it's certainly infinitely better that anything I could write! - but this is all about opinions, and I am honestly reflecting my gut-reaction when I finished reading this book.


If you are a fan of Christie, you will enjoy it as a classic in the genre - just don't expect any great surprises. If you haven't read Christie, but enjoy this genre, you will probably enjoy it as a good example of her work and it may entice you to explore her other works.


ISBN 0-00-712076-1
383 pages
I borrowed my copy from the library but it is currently available on Amazon for £4.99 (new) and from 10p + P&P (used)

Summary: Classic Agatha Christie Murder Mystery but Quite Similar to Other Books