Murder on the Orient Express

I had last read any Christie over 25 years ago. My reading abilities and preferences have inevitably moved on, but what I think stands out most about Murder is how incredibly dated it feels. “Form”, attitudes and accepted modes of conversation have changed quite considerably. This does not make Murder a bad read, merely a more comedic one. The judgmental nature of the characters (and implicitly, Christie) about people of different nationalities is especially amusing. The British are not exempt from criticism either. Although the conclusion of Murder is well-known (at least to me) — i.e. it's a pre-arranged complicity — how Christie pulls all the strings to arrive here is impressive. The simplicity of the language she uses acts almost as another shroud to cover the truth. All the characters lie, but there are inevitable inconsistencies. Clever stuff, even if I feel the need not to revisit any more Christie. 7/10.

By Agatha Christie