64. MURDER on the ORIENT EXPRESS

Agatha Christie 1934

A classic detective fiction, Hercule Poirot is a private Belgian detective who boards the Orient Express train en route from Istanbul to England. The surprisingly crowded Stamboul-Callais coach sleeping compartments become the scene of an investigation as a snowstorm halts their journey, an American is found dead, and the brilliant Poirot solves the murder using his brain cells: by pure logic and deduction.

'Hercule Poirot addressed himself to the task of keeping his moustaches out of the soup.'(27)

'It is incredible, Monsieur. All the world elects to travel tonight.'(31)

'The Orient Express had started on its three-days' journey across Europe.'(35)

'And yet - it lends itself to romance, my friend. All around us are people, of all classes, of all nationalities, of all ages. For three days these people, these strangers to one another, are brought together. They sleep and eat under one roof, they cannot get away from each other. At the end of three days they part, they go their several ways, never, perhaps to see each other again.'(38)

'You may well ask that. First this snow - this stoppage. And now -... And now a passenger lies dead in his berth -stabbed.'(61)

"No," said Mr Bouc thoughtfully. "That is the act of a man driven almost crazy with a frenzied hate - it suggests more the Latin temperament. Or else it suggests, as our friend the chef de train insisted, a woman."(78)

'We have here a hypothesis of the First and Second Murderer, as the great Shakespeare would put it. The First Murderer stabbed his victim and left the compartment, turning off the light. The Second Murderer came in the dark, did not see that his or her work had been done and stabbed at least twice at a dead body. '(83)

'See you, my dear doctor, me, I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash. But in this case I would welcome a little scientific assistance. This compartment is full of clues, but can I be sure that those clues are really what they seem to be?'(89)

'Ah, I'm coming to that. As I say, these clues, the watch stopped at a quarter-past one, the handkerchief, the pipe cleaner, they may be genuine, or they may be fake. As to that I cannot yet tell.'(90)

'Ratchett, as you suspected, was merely an alias. Ratchett was Casetti, the man who ran the celebrated kidnapping stunts - including the famous affair of little Daisy Armstrong.'(113)

'Mon cher, it is my habit to be neat and orderly. I make here a little table of chronological events.'(145)

'The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.'(213)

'You are in error. You are inclined to put the cart before the horse. Before I ask myself, "Where did this man vanish to?" I ask myself, " Did such a man really exist?" Because, you see, if the man were an invention-- a fabrication-- how much easier to make him disappear! So I try to establish first that there is really is such a flesh and blood person.'(219)

'Mon ami, if you wish to catch a rabbit you put a ferret into the hole, and if the rabbit is there he runs. That is all I have done.'(248)

"We will go back to the dining-car," said Poirot. "We know now all that we can know. We have the evidence of the passengers, the evidence of their baggage, the evidence of our eyes. We can expect no further help. It must be our part now to use our brains.'(252)

'But I know human nature, my friend, and I tell you that, suddenly confronted with the possibility of being tried for murder, the most innocent person will lose their head and do the most absurd things. No, no the grease spot and that changed label do not prove guilt...'(284)

'If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, they usually admit it - often our of sheer surprise. It is only necessary to guess right to produce your effect.'(302)

"I like to see an angry Englishman," said Poirot. "They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language."(315)

'As to who killed him --" He paused, looking at his audience. He could not complain of any lack of attention. Every eye was fixed upon him. In the stillness you could have heard a pin drop. He went on slowly:'(337)
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An Agatha Christie Signature Edition published 2001
347 pages
Book owned
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Personal note: Souvenir book bought in Amsterdam, May, 2010; and thanks to NancyO from 2010:The Year in Books who encouraged me to read the book earlier that I would have.