::READERS REVIEWS::

Trust the Train! - What is your favorite Hercule Poirot mystery? While the classics like "Murder on the Orient Express" or "Death on the Nile" or the "ABC Murders" rate high among possible choices, The Mystery of hte Blue Train is definitely my pick! The story begins on a train bound for the French Riviera. A young heiress on the train is killed and her jewels, priceless rubies, are stolen. Now, Hercule Poirot, who was on the train, must put his "little grey cells" to the task to solve the murder. One of things I love best about this book, besides being such a classic Christie puzzle, is one of the last lines in the novel. A young girl named Lenox despairs in the face of love and loss. But the wise Poirot advises, "You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it." "Trust the train," murmurs Poirot, "And trust Hercule Poirot. He knows."

Robbery and Murder on the Blue Train - This 1928 novel describes a world that is gone, no one writes such stories today. An American millionaire buys expensive jewels from a private dealer. When he is threatened by robbers he shoots at them (they had the right to keep and bear arms before WW II). These rubies are given to his daughter Ruth, who has an unhappy marriage to a poor aristocrat with a rich title; both lead separate lives. Ruth will travel on the Blue Train to Nice (and visit an old boy friend). It happens that Hercule Poirot is also on that train, and so is Derek Kettering, Ruth's husband. After leaving Lyons Ruth Kettering is found dead, strangled with her face battered beyond recognition. Her rubies were stolen. Poirot aids the police, and does an investigation for Rufus Van Aldin, Ruth's multimillionaire father. Other characters are introduced; they play a part in this story, and reflect those times.

The police arrest the obvious suspect. Poirot is able to find the real killer by doing a better background investigation. [I had a hunch by Chapter 28 using 'common sense' from reading what was in the text to guess the solution.] Poirot's solution does not depend on physical evidence such as fingerprints, blood spatter, or locating the stolen rubies! It is based on circumstantial evidence, comparing the differences in spoken testimony. This is a clever solution that depends on certain facts (or clues) placed in the earlier chapters. Any victim whose face was battered beyond recognition would have blood spatter around the body, unmentioned here. [What object did the battering?] This battering suggests great hatred of the victim. Poirot solved the crime with a theory that accounted for all the known facts.

Note how the closed compartments of European first class trains allowed crimes that can't occur in an open coach. Readers of true crime stories know that love or money (lust or greed) often lead to murder. Both are in this story. Was the introduction of Katherine Grey just padding, a false clue, or another of Christie's personal statements?

Top Christie Poirot formula mystery - A very rich man-of-the-world acquires a tremendously priceless gem off the Black Market for his somewhat flighty, almost divorced, daughter. But this famous and valuable bauble carries a grim curse which has proved fatal for its previous owners!

The young lady leaves town on The Blue Train to covertly rendezvous with her lover, a man of dubious character and of whom her father does not at all approve. But that turns out to be the least of dad's worries since his pride-and-joy never makes it alive to her destination. And guess what? The jewel is stolen too!

A second young and attractive lady, recently the beneficiary of a notable inheritance, was the last to see this unfortunate gal before she was murdered. She's traveling to visit with relatives who would like to share a chunk of the pecuniary cheese. This gal remains linked to the case, regardless of how much she'd rather not be a principal incidental to the heinous incident.

The number of suspects, who were also secreted on The Blue Train, go far beyond the young lady's swarthy lover -- and since the police appear to be stumped, the father calls in the world's top detective, Hercule Poirot, to investigate and resolve this dark and complicated matter.

Here, Christie weaves a tale of mystery, international intrigue, and a journey into the Black Market in which jewel thieves operate. And typical to Christie's style, the character development is superb and the main story is bulging with interesting and relevant sub-plots. This is one of Christie's best efforts, clearly in the top 10 percent of her writings.

My highest recommendation.

Top Christie Poirot formula mystery! - A very rich man-of-the-world acquires a tremendously priceless gem off the Black Market for his somewhat flighty, almost divorced, daughter. But this famous and valuable bauble carries a grim curse which has proved fatal for its previous owners!

The young lady leaves town on The Blue Train to covertly rendezvous with her lover, a man of dubious character and of whom her father does not at all approve. But that turns out to be the least of dad's worries since his pride-and-joy never makes it alive to her destination. And guess what? The jewel is stolen too!

A second young and attractive lady, recently the beneficiary of a notable inheritance, was the last to see this unfortunate gal before she was murdered. She's traveling to visit with relatives who would like to share a chunk of the pecuniary cheese. This gal remains linked to the case, regardless of how much she'd rather not be a principal incidental to the heinous incident.

The number of suspects, who were also secreted on The Blue Train, go far beyond the young lady's swarthy lover -- and since the police appear to be stumped, the father calls in the world's top detective, Hercule Poirot, to investigate and resolve this dark and complicated matter.

Here, Christie weaves a tale of mystery, international intrigue, and a journey into the Black Market in which jewel thieves operate. And typical to Christie's style, the character development is superb and the main story is bulging with interesting and relevant sub-plots. This is one of Christie's best efforts, clearly in the top 10 percent of her writings.

My highest recommendation.

Great Writer, Poor Book - There's an old saying "Even Homer nods". Agatha Christie's nod was "The Mystery of the Blue Train".

The plot manages to be both weak and overly complicated; it is 'fair play' but just barely. The characters are not up to Christie's usual standards, but they are not too bad. The pace of the story is awful -- not just slow, but aimless, and totally lacking in humor -- in a word 'flat'. My guess is Miss Christie had a good short story but had to produce a novel; and so she strung it out.

I've read and re-read all Agatha Christie's novels and short stories, and in my opinion she is the best detective story writer ever. Sadly "The Mystery of the Blue Train" is not Christie at her best, or even at her good.

Ever felt you didn't care who the murderer was? - Yes, thats exactly how I felt after going thru 25 chapters of this book. As some other reviewer mentioned, Christie seems to have stretched out a little murder mystery into a full-blown novel. Probably the best thing Christie does with this novel is that she reveals the murderer at a point when you are in a quandary as to read on or not. Just too much to read to get to a mediocre ending. I've read 3 Christie books now and this is easily the worst.

Locomotive Death - Agatha Christie is undoubtedly the queen of the mystery novel. And as far as mystery writers go, there is no one who can match her in terms of pacing a plot or creating unusual twists of fate. While "The Mystery of the Blue Train" is a thoroughly enjoyable Hercule Poirot mystery, it lacks some of the pep and vigor of other Christie works.

As usual, Hercule Poriot becomes involved in a mystery by being in the right place at the right time. While aboard Le Train Bleu, an American heriess named Ruth Kettering is found murdered, a famous and extremely expensive ruby necklace stolen from her possession. Immediate suspicion alights upon two suspects - her husband (a man in desperate need of money, who was having an affair with another woman) and her former lover (a charlatan by any standard, but one whom Ruth had been taken in by). Before her murder, Ruth confided her doubts to Katherine Grey, a young woman aboard the train who finds herself wrapped up in the mystery as well. Ruth's father, Rufus Van Aldin, hires Poirot to get to the bottom of the mystery. Is his son-in-law capable of murder? Is the oily charlatan a thief and a murderer? Or has everyone been looking at the wrong suspects the entire time?

Without a doubt, Hercule Poirot is the one to ferret out all of the facts of the case when the French police are content that they have the murderer in jail. "The Mystery of the Blue Train" feels remarkably fresh (unlike some other Christie works that can be bogged down by setting) and is an ingenious if slightly predictable mystery. Sometimes Poirot can be unbearable in a story because of his snobbery, but he is truly the most likable character in this novel - the rest seem mere sketches and somewhat bland ones at that, so the reader is not given much to root for in terms of character.

Ever felt you didn't care who the murderer was? - Yes, thats exactly how I felt after going thru 25 chapters of this book. As some other reviewer mentioned, Christie seems to have stretched out a little murder mystery into a full-blown novel. Probably the best thing Christie does with this novel is that she reveals the murderer at a point when you are in a quandary as to read on or not. Just too much to read to get to a mediocre ending. I've read 3 Christie books now and this is easily the worst.

Top Christie Poirot formula mystery - A very rich man-of-the-world acquires a tremendously priceless gem off the Black Market for his somewhat flighty, almost divorced, daughter. But this famous and valuable bauble carries a grim curse which has proved fatal for its previous owners!

The young lady leaves town on The Blue Train to covertly rendezvous with her lover, a man of dubious character and of whom her father does not at all approve. But that turns out to be the least of dad's worries since his pride-and-joy never makes it alive to her destination. And guess what? The jewel is stolen too!

A second young and attractive lady, recently the beneficiary of a notable inheritance, was the last to see this unfortunate gal before she was murdered. She's traveling to visit with relatives who would like to share a chunk of the pecuniary cheese. This gal remains linked to the case, regardless of how much she'd rather not be a principal incidental to the heinous incident.

The number of suspects, who were also secreted on The Blue Train, go far beyond the young lady's swarthy lover -- and since the police appear to be stumped, the father calls in the world's top detective, Hercule Poirot, to investigate and resolve this dark and complicated matter.

Here, Christie weaves a tale of mystery, international intrigue, and a journey into the Black Market in which jewel thieves operate. And typical to Christie's style, the character development is superb and the main story is bulging with interesting and relevant sub-plots. This is one of Christie's best efforts, clearly in the top 10 percent of her writings.

My highest recommendation.