The story starts with our hero boarding the Orient Express in Aleppo, Syria, after a successful investigation for the French Army. He meets one of the directors of the company that runs the Orient train, M.Bouc. Hercule Poirot joins the other thirteen passengers, M. Bouc, a Dr. Constantine, and one conductor in the Athens-Paris Coach. And folks we are off to the races! One of the passengers, a Mr. Ratchett, who is of vile and dubious character turns up dead on the first night of the trip. He's been stabbed twelve times in his bunk. To make matters worse, the train is now at a standstill, snowed-in by a blizzard. That means the killer is stranded on the train and poses a threat to the remaining twelve passengers on the Athens-Paris car. As you've probably guessed, the director of the train, M. Bouc, engages our lovable and pyknic detective, Hercule Poirot. Let the Lumosity exercises begin! The rest of the novel is a cat-and-mouse game between the twelve passengers and Hercule. I tried to figure out who the killer was, and I didn't even come close!
It's amazing to me how Agatha Christie can make the reader visualize all seventeen people on the train in only 265 pages. I liked the way Agatha has Hercule use the director, M. Bouc, and Dr. Constantine as a sounding board to test his theories. He actually makes them think that they are helping him solve the mystery. This is a very sound novel and completely enjoyable. I am totally drawn into this series and hope to read
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