In this classic story, our hero is the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. (Okay, confession time: In my head I still say his name like a weird, British-accent version of "pirate.")
While riding the Orient Express, Poirot is approached by a gentlemen who wishes to hire him as a bodyguard because he is in fear that he will be murdered. Poirot declines the offer (because the man has an evil look about him), and subsequently the man is, in fact, murdered on the train.
The train gets stuck in a snow storm, and it is up to Poirot to determine which of the passengers committed the crime before the killer may strike again.
It is a fantastic nightmare scenario! Without using overly grotesque imagery, or unnecessary gore, Agatha Christie still conveys the terror and suspense.
I absolutely love her pacing. The story is neither too long nor too short. The scene changes come at the perfect times to build suspense. And she does not get bogged down in unnecessary details.
Her characters are always so well-developed and diverse. This is remarkable, given the number of characters and the relatively short length of the book.
On a negative note, the ending began to be a little obvious to me at some point (and I am working under the assumption that I am not extremely clever). But the VERY end flabbergasted me a bit..... I can't spoil it - you'll just have to read it. To be honest, I did not care for the manner in which the case was resolved (which only involved perhaps the last two or three paragraphs). Let's just say it didn't seem "just" to me. But it did not lessen my enjoyment of the book very much.
There is a little bit of antiquated word usage, some of which would probably be considered racially offensive today. Beware of that. Remember the era in which it was written.
Great story, great book, great author. 'Nuff said.
