Murder on the Orient Express

Name: Murder on the Orient Express

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Detection

E-Book: Available

Since childhood I’m very fond of detective stories and made my debut with the one and only 'The Hound of Baskervilles' after that I read a lot of similar books starring dearest Sherlock Holmes, cunning Hercule Poirot, shrewd Perry Mason and Miss Maple. To be frank I’m an ardent supporter of Sherlock for his intellectual skill set and the way he executed his plans. Believe or not the door of my hostel room contained a print out saying “221B, Baker Street”. Even then I never wrote about any of them, not even about "Valley of Fear". But today I’m writing about "Murder on the Orient Express". The novel does not consist of any scientific method of reasoning or any other method of deduction. It’s simply plain and soft thinking based on human psychology. That’s the reason I would say this is my favourite detective. I know all my friends from the Sherlock Holmes community would like to bury me. (If they want to do so, I request them to bury me at 221B, Baker Street J). With due respect to all the Sherlock’s adroit problem solving skills, Perry's consummate argumentative skills (also to the beautiful looks of Della Street :) ) I would say Poirot comprehensively won the fray. When I started this book I thought I will read in the journey but once I entered into the crime I just could not resist and eventually completed it in one single go. In many of the detective stories I read I could make out who is going to be the culprit (at least after reading 70-80%) but in case of this book I was completely clueless and barking at possible wrong trees. That’s Agatha at her best! I have read only a few of her 92 novels, but I’m sure none would be better than this one. At the end of the novel all you are left with is awe and a feeling of admire towards Agatha.

Unlike other detective novels, this book starts in a very lucid way introducing the various characters present in the Orient Express. The novel starts in Syria where Poirot gets on to the train. As the story moves on Poirot observes certain interesting things about the people in the train. Later on, once the crime is committed the story takes all possible twists and turns. The story never loses its grip over the reader which is a mark of Agatha Christie. When I reached the chapter “Hercule Poirot sits back and thinks” I thought I can find the culprit in this chapter but eventually I ended up in doubting 2-3 people. At this point of novel what one should recognise is the subtle things which Poirot recollects (As expected I missed themJ). On a whole one just cant ignore the way the problem is broken into different pieces and connected in a logical sequence. EOD detection is about checking the consistency of the various statements made by the witnesses!

Overall, A must read book if you are a detection maniac. For others, best possible book for their debut into the world of detective literature.