Murder on the Orient Express


Murder on the Orient Express is a detective novel by English writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the United States, it was published on 28 February 1934, under the title of Murder in the Calais Coach, by Dodd, Mead and Company. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.
The elegant train of the 1930s, the Orient Express, is stopped by heavy snowfall. A murder is discovered, and Poirot's trip home to London from the Middle East is interrupted to solve the murder.
The US title of Murder in the Calais Coach was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel Stamboul Train, which had been published in the United States as Orient Express.

Plot

After taking the Taurus Express from Aleppo in Syria to Istanbul, private detective Hercule Poirot arrives at the Tokatlian Hotel. There he receives a telegram prompting him to return to London. He instructs the concierge to book him a first-class compartment on the Simplon-route Orient Express service leaving that night. Although the train is fully booked, Poirot obtains a second-class berth through with the intervention of a friend and fellow Belgian who is also boarding the train, Monsieur Bouc, a director of the railway, Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.
A brash and vulgar American businessman named Ratchett is aboard the train with his personal secretary and translator, Hector McQueen. Once Poirot is recognized as the famous detective, Ratchett approaches him and asks if he will act as his protector as Ratchett has been receiving death threats. Poirot, repulsed by Mr. Ratchett, refuses the case. M. Bouc has taken the last first-class cabin, but arranges to be moved to a separate coach and gives Poirot his space. The first night Poirot sleeps in first class, he observes some strange occurrences. Early in the morning, he is awakened by a cry from Ratchett's compartment next door. The conductor knocks on Ratchett's door, but a voice from inside responds, "Ce n'est rien. Je me suis trompé". Poirot has difficulty sleeping because there is a peculiar silence on the train. Mrs. Hubbard rings her bell and tells the conductor there is a man in her room. Poirot rings his bell for water, and the conductor informs him that the train is stuck in a snowbank before he hears a loud thump next door.
The next morning, the train is still stopped and M. Bouc informs Poirot that Ratchett has been murdered and the murderer is still aboard. Poirot tells M. Bouc he will investigate the case. He first examines Ratchett's body and compartment. He discovers the following: the body has 12 stab wounds, the window had been left open, presumably to trick the investigators into thinking the murderer escaped, even though there are no footprints in the snow, a handkerchief with the initial 'H', a pipe cleaner, a round match different from the matches Ratchett used, and a charred piece of paper with the name 'Armstrong' on it.
The piece of paper helps Poirot work out who Ratchett really is and why someone would want to murder him. A few years earlier, a man named Cassetti kidnapped a three-year-old, Daisy Armstrong. Cassetti collected a ransom from the wealthy Armstrong family, but killed the child within two hours of kidnapping her. Poirot concludes that 'Ratchett' was actually Cassetti. The voice in Ratchett's compartment could not have been the American's, since Ratchett/Cassetti does not speak French.
Poirot begins the interviews, starting with the conductor, then Hector McQueen. Poirot knows that McQueen is involved with the case because he knows about the Armstrong note. Hector is surprised that Poirot found it because he thought it had been destroyed. Poirot then interviews Masterman and Mrs. Hubbard, who claims that the murderer was in her cabin. All of the passengers give Poirot suitable alibis during their interviews, although a few suspicious elements are brought to light: several passengers observed a woman in a red kimono walking down the hallway on the night of the murder, but no one admits to owning a red kimono. Mrs. Hubbard tells Poirot she had Greta Ohlsson lock the communicating door between her compartment and Ratchett's. Hildegarde Schmidt bumped into a stranger wearing a Wagons-Lits uniform blazer.
Poirot checks all of the passengers' luggage, during which he is surprised by several things: the label on Countess Andrenyi's luggage is wet, a Wagons-Lits uniform is found in Hildegarde Schmidt's bag, and the red kimono is found in his own luggage.
Following the luggage check, Poirot, Dr. Constantine, and M. Bouc review the facts of the case and develop a list of questions. With the evidence and questions in mind, Poirot sits and thinks about the case, going into a trance-like state. When he surfaces from it, he deduces the solution. He calls in several people and reveals their true identities. All of them were connected with the Armstrong tragedy in some way. Poirot discovers Countess Andrenyi is Helena Goldenberg, aunt of Daisy Armstrong. She smudged her luggage label and obscured her name, in an effort to conceal her identity. Mary Debenham was Daisy's governess; Antonio Foscanelli was the Armstrongs' chauffeur; Masterman was Col. Armstrong's valet; and Greta Ohlsson was Daisy's nurse. Princess Dragomiroff, revealed to be Sonia Armstrong's godmother, claims the monogrammed handkerchief found in Ratchett's compartment.
Poirot gathers all of the passengers into the dining car and propounds two possible solutions. The first solution is that a stranger entered the train when it stopped at Vinkovci, killed Ratchett, and disembarked from the train. The second solution is that all the passengers aboard the Orient Express participated in stabbing Cassetti/Ratchett to death. Poirot suggests that 12 of the 13 passengers, all close to the Armstrong case, killed Ratchett to avenge the murder of Daisy Armstrong. Mrs. Hubbard, revealed as the famous actress Linda Arden, admits that the second solution is correct.
M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine decide to tell the police that the first solution is correct to protect the family. M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine accept Poirot's first suggestion while Poirot retires from the case.

Characters

The Times Literary Supplement of 11 January 1934 outlined the plot and concluded that "The little grey cells solve once more the seemingly insoluble. Mrs Christie makes an improbable tale very real, and keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end."
In The New York Times Book Review of 4 March 1934, Isaac Anderson wrote, "The great Belgian detective's guesses are more than shrewd; they are positively miraculous. Although both the murder plot and the solution verge upon the impossible, Agatha Christie has contrived to make them appear quite convincing for the time being, and what more than that can a mystery addict desire?"
The reviewer in The Guardian of 12 January 1934 noted that the murder would have been "perfect" had Poirot not been on the train and also overheard a conversation between Miss Debenham and Colonel Arbuthnot before he boarded; however, "The 'little grey cells' worked admirably, and the solution surprised their owner as much as it may well surprise the reader, for the secret is well kept and the manner of the telling is in Mrs Christie's usual admirable manner."
Robert Barnard said that this novel was "The best of the railway stories. The Orient Express, snowed up in Yugoslavia, provides the ideal 'closed' set-up for a classic-style exercise in detection, as well as an excuse for an international cast-list. Contains my favourite line in all Christie: 'Poor creature, she's a Swede.' Impeccably clued, with a clever use of the Cyrillic script. The solution raised the ire of Raymond Chandler, but won't bother anyone who doesn't insist his detective fiction mirror real-life crime." The reference is to Chandler's criticism of Christie in his essay The Simple Art of Murder.
In December 2014, the novel was included in Entertainment Weekly's list of the Nine Great Christie Novels.

Adaptations

Radio

starred as Poirot in a five-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation by Michael Bakewell, directed by Enyd Williams, and originally broadcast from 28 December 1992 – 1 January 1993. André Maranne appeared as Bouc, Joss Ackland as Ratchett/Cassetti, Sylvia Syms as Mrs Hubbard, Siân Phillips as Princess Dragomiroff, Francesca Annis as Mary Debenham, and Peter Polycarpou as Dr Constantine.
In 2017, the streaming service Audible released another radio adaptation that featured Tom Conti as the voice of Poirot. The voice cast also featured Sophie Okonedo as Mary Debenham, Eddie Marsan as Ratchett/Cassetti, and narration from Art Malik.
The Soviet radio play was released in 1966. The voice cast featured Vsevolod Yakut as Poirot, Rostislav Plyatt as Colonel Arbuthnot, Maria Babanova as Hubbard, Oleg Yefremov as Hector McQueen, Leonid Kanevsky as Antonio Foscarelli, Angelina Stepanova as Princess Dragomiroff and Alexander Lazarev as Hardman.

Film

;Murder on the Orient Express
The book was made into a 1974 movie directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by John Brabourne and Richard B. Goodwin; it was a critical and commercial hit. The film starred Albert Finney as Poirot, Martin Balsam as Signor Bianchi, George Coulouris as Dr Constantine, and Richard Widmark as Ratchett/Cassetti, with the remaining cast suspects including Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, John Gielgud, Michael York, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Jacqueline Bisset, Wendy Hiller, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Colin Blakely, Denis Quilley, and Ingrid Bergman, who won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Greta Ohlsson. Only minor changes were made for the film: Masterman was renamed Beddoes, the dead maid was named Paulette instead of Susanne, Helena Goldenberg became Helena Grünwald, Antonio Foscarelli became Gino Foscarelli, Caroline Martha Hubbard became Harriet Belinda Hubbard, and the train line's Belgian/Flemish director, Monsieur Bouc, became instead an Italian director, Signor Bianchi.
;Murder on the Orient Express
On 16 June 2015, 20th Century Fox hired Kenneth Branagh to direct and star as Poirot in another film adaptation of the story, which was released on 3 November 2017. On 29 September 2016, the studio issued a press release announcing much of the cast, including Johnny Depp as Ratchett/Cassetti, Michelle Pfeiffer as Mrs Hubbard, Penélope Cruz as Pilar Estravados, Dame Judi Dench as Princess Dragomiroff, Sir Derek Jacobi as Masterman, Leslie Odom Jr. as Dr Arbuthnot, Daisy Ridley as Mary Debenham, Lucy Boynton as Countess Andrenyi, Tom Bateman as Monsieur Bouc, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Biniamino Marquez, Josh Gad as Hector MacQueen, Marwan Kenzari as Pierre Michel, Sergei Polunin as Count Andrenyi, Willem Dafoe as Gerhard Hardman, and Olivia Colman as Hildegarde Schmidt. Greta Ohlsson is renamed to Pilar Estravados; the character of Colonel Arbuthnot is combined with Dr Constantine to create Dr Arbuthnot, a sniper who served under Colonel Armstrong in the war and had his medical school paid for by Armstrong; and Monsieur Bouc is changed from the director of the line to the director's nephew. Added was a direct link for Poirot to the Armstrong kidnapping—before Sonia's death, John Armstrong wrote to Poirot for help. Also unlike the book, the kidnapping did not take place on Long Island but in New Jersey, where the Lindbergh Kidnapping took place. Susanne Michel is switched from Pierre Michel's daughter to his sister. Cyrus Hardman poses as an Austrian scientist for part of the film. The last scene also sets up the possibility of Death on the Nile as a sequel.

Television

;Murder on the Orient Express
A thoroughly modernized and poorly received made-for-TV version starring Alfred Molina as Poirot was presented by CBS in 2001. This version co-starred Meredith Baxter as Mrs Hubbard and Leslie Caron as the Princess Dragomiroff. Poirot is portrayed as significantly younger and less eccentric than Christie's detective, and is given a subplot involving a romantic relationship with Vera Rosakoff, who is loosely based on an infrequently recurring character of the same name. The story is updated to a contemporary setting, and four of the suspects are deleted, as is Dr Constantine.
;Agatha Christie's Poirot: "Murder on the Orient Express"
David Suchet reprised the role of Hercule Poirot in "Murder on the Orient Express", an 80-minute movie-length episode of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot co-produced by ITV Studios and WGBH-TV, adapted for the screen by Stewart Harcourt. The original air date was 11 July 2010 in the United States, and it was aired on Christmas Day 2010 in the UK. The cast includes Dame Eileen Atkins as Princess Dragomiroff, Hugh Bonneville as Masterman, Jessica Chastain as Mary Debenham, Barbara Hershey as Mrs Hubbard, Toby Jones as Ratchett/Cassetti, and David Morrissey as Colonel Arbuthnot. The character Cyrus Hardman has been largely amalgamated with the chauffeur Foscarelli and Dr Constantine becomes a co-conspirator. The main difference from the novel is the additional element of Poirot's Catholicism being brought to the forefront, and his personal and religious struggle with whether to expose the murderers or let them off the hook, as well as a much darker atmosphere of the film, in comparison with the novel.
The interior of the Orient Express was reproduced at Pinewood Studios in London, while other locations include the Freemason Hall, Nene Valley Railway, and a street in Malta.
;Japanese TV adaptation
A Japanese adaptation was broadcast over two nights in January 2015 on Fuji Television, titled , and it featured several famous actors, including Ninomiya Kazunari, Matsushima Nanako, Tamaki Hiroshi, Kichise Michiko, Nishida Toshiyuki, and Sawamura Ikki. The main character, Suguro Takeru, modeled on Hercule Poirot, was played by actor Nomura Mansai.
The first night featured a storyline true to the original text, but set in Japan in 1933. In this version, the train Orient Kyuukou ran from the western city of Shimonoseki to Tokyo, with the train stopped by a small avalanche near Sekigahara, Gifu.
The second night was an original story.

Stage

American playwright Ken Ludwig adapted the novel into a play, which premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey on March 14, 2017. The production was directed by Emily Mann, and starred Allan Corduner in the role of Hercule Poirot.

Computer game

The point and click computer game was released in November 2006 for Windows and expanded on Agatha Christie's original story with a new playable central character as Hercule Poirot is ill and recovering in his train compartment.

Publication history

The story's first true publication was the US serialisation in six instalments in the Saturday Evening Post from 30 September to 4 November 1933. The title was Murder in the Calais Coach, and it was illustrated by William C. Hoople.
The UK serialisation appeared after book publication, appearing in three instalments in the Grand Magazine, in March, April, and May 1934. This version was abridged from the book version, was without chapter divisions, and named the Russian princess as Dragiloff instead of Dragomiroff. Advertisements in the back pages of the UK first editions of The Listerdale Mystery, Why Didn't They Ask Evans, and Parker Pyne Investigates claimed that Murder on the Orient Express had proven to be Christie's best-selling book to date and the best-selling book published in the Collins Crime Club series.