Start Reading The Mystery Of The Blue Train Conceptualized By Agatha Christie Accessible From Bound Copy

am sorry to say this about an Agatha Christie book, but it was MEHMEHMEH, Badly structured, trying to be too many things at the same time, like Agatha Christie couldn't quite make up her mind what it was she was writing.
There were too many characters and uninteresting, bland ones at that, Not the finest hour of detective fiction altogether, No wonder I did not remember much about it,

UpdateJan
I read this a long time ago and it did not make a big impression, because I couldn't for the life of me remember, who the murderer was or why the victim was killed one of my benchmarks for detective fiction, though definitely not the only one so maybe this will be like reading the book for the first time.
Let's see. An enjoyable convoluted mystery. Most meaningful quote: "Mademoiselle Katherine has spent a great deal of her life listening, and those who have listened do not find it easy to talk they keep their sorrows and joys to themselves and tell no one.
" By Jove, if it isn't Monsieur Poirot, I've been reading all the Marple novels recently for the first time, I had forgotten about Poirot stories, This book threatens to be the best of the lot, I knew I had forgotten mostly about it, except the basic premise, This book has a fragile beauty and a grim charm to it, The fact that Poirot's shenanigans are kept to a minimum helps, It didn't feel like a re read at all, Therefore I do not cheat and I did honestly succeed in guessing the murderer's identity, More of that later.

The book has to end somewhere, I didn't catch the hint regarding the ruby, the "Heart of Fire", Was the original in Mirelle's possession or was it a fake Mirelle could not exact no revenge on her lost lover, but she is an unimaginable character.
Agatha Christie makes me meet people I will never meet, not here, not in this age, I'm speaking of people in high places, but also people who have served in war, and those doughty Empire builders who were definitely English.
I cannot judge how true these characters are, and when someone like Mirelle, or the Compte de la Roche appears, I'm at a loss to understand whether Agatha Christie is improvising or whether these creatures really walked the good Earth at some point in the lost past.


The beginning was intriguing, There's a transaction of the ruby being carried, and a lot of very varied people being introduced, I would have liked this segment to go on more, But then in a jarring change Poirot appears and things get dull, But this doesn't last long, The passages where the victim is on the train are fantastic, A luxury train is very archaic, It's also very ghostly, like a ship in a mist, But a train, I think has more romance, especially one peopled by the sorts that the author imagined here, The victim is millionaire extraordinaire Van Aldin's daughter, She is a flawed beauty, a very beautiful woman who has inherited two millions and a too masculine jaw line and is about to die needlessly.
Herein lies the one glitch in this story, if I must nitpick, The murder was not essential, And if I remember correctly, most Agatha Christie murders happen because of urgency and viral necessity, Someone named the Marquis doesn't sound like a serial killer, But here he is made out to be a ruthlessomigod, pun accidental killer, The trouble of killing, but also of all the clever alibis being planned, they aren't worth doing if the cleverness is there, There is no motive for murder, In the movie " Once Upon A Time In the West" Henry Fonda says, people are scared when they are dying, That I can understand, but here the dead bodies don't give evidence line is not convincing and lacks punch, But we needed a murder, and a murder simply had to be conjured, Where would we be if Ruth was alive, if only being a victim of theft only For one, I would have wanted very much to read this story, but it would be a short story.
There wouldn't be enough to go on to make of the theft of the rubies a fascinating tale as this book turned out to be.


A few random things now that premonition of the attractive Katherine Grey that came out of the blue, was a manipulation of the author, who hid part of the experience.
But I did guess the murderer's identity, I knew who was the Marquis, There was the simple line that surgeons were surprised of Knighton's limp, That was the only hint I could pick up, But as of the identity of his accomplice, Kitty Kidd, I was so wrong! I thought she was Lennox Tamplin, simply because I pounced on the detail that in a certain picture, she had averted her face and shown only her nape.
That was a red herring that I'm still digesting! I thought she must have dual identities, The whole Tamplin entourage was a dead end, Too much prose wasted for little importance,

Thiswell earned is perhaps the strongest one, I would have given it more if possible, I do not remember which book has so much romance and class as this book, From now on, I think it's all downhill, In my youth I read most of the Poirot mysteries in French, in disorder, I remember little of them for most of them, There's the Mystery of the Orient Express, but that one I know of too well, I dare not choose a too pedestrian book, And I prefer Marple over Poirot, Agatha Christie is very confident in her plots, When she makes a character praise the denouement, it's an act of faith, I recommend this book to anyone who reads and has not read it, “You tell your lies and you think nobody knows, But there are two people who know, Yestwo people. One is le bon Dieuand the other is Hercule Poirot, ”

The Mystery of the Blue Train is a fine title, and I like the blue cover of this edition that I read, and though it is not one of Christies best, as the sixth which is to say early Hercules Poirot of! it is a strong effort.
Having also just read Agatha: The Real Story of Agatha Christie, the graphic biography that insists she was the Very Model of a Modern Woman, and a feminist, I felt supported in my view that the disparaging comments she has various characters make about women throughout had a purpose in the mysterys solution.
I know an authors autobiography is usually a sketchy source at best for divining purpose in fiction, but Christie had just been cheated on and dumped by her first husband in the year before this was published, and I thought this books in part focus on women may have come in part from her life events.


Ruths Dad: "Have you got the grit to tell the world you made a mistake, Theres only one way out of this mess, Ruthie, cut your losses and start afresh, . . ”
“You mean ”
“Divorce. ”
“Divorce!”

As with other, better books from Christie, a murder takes place on a train oh, some take place on boats, too!, the night or “blue” train from Calais to Nice, as Christie herself did much world travel via train.
oh, and I was reading this about a location in Nice on the day I read of a truck bombing in Nice, which was somewhat strange.
In this one Christie tries third person omniscient rather than have some buffoon like Hastings narrate it and experiments with having us not meet Poirot at all for more than a third of the book.
You know very well that anything that happens with respect to solving the case is a wash until Poirot gets on the scene, and even then it is a slow, deliberate process.
I have heard this lesser known book from Christie was done rather quickly, as she needed cash for her and her daughter, but that seems unfair, because while this one wasnt particularly innovative, I can see her working on different things as a writer, developing her craft.


So: Ruth Van Kettering is murdered, She was unhappily married to Derek, who is struggling financially but could use the money he might get from Ruths rich daddy, who hires Poirot to do the investigation.
Ruth also was given rare rubies from her father, and they are of course missing at the time of her death, Derek also “hangs out” with an exotic dancer named Mirelle who seems hotly unpredictable, Ruth's and Derek's marriage is one of convenience, not love and for any mystery reader, the obviousness of him as possible murderer takes him out of the running pretty quickly, eh.


Then theres someone Ruth may have been seeing on the side, too, the Comte de La Roche who could also use the cash.
A sophisticated ladies man. But is the murder linked to the theft

Theres a woman, Katherine Grey, that we come to like very much, one of the best of Christies early characters.
Shes been working for a crusty old lady, Miss Viner, for many years and is going to receive an inheritance from the old crank who contributes some comic relief.
Oh, and Grey has "contacts" with The Count and Derek, too,

But who is M, Marquis And what of Mr, Ketterings valet, Knighton, and his

maid Do we have enough characters for a lineup Not to worry, we will interview all of them! We will get to the bottom of this!

There are many many slyly satirical comments about women throughout, such as this exchange between Miss Viner and Katherine:
Ms.
Viner: “Don't think you'll get married, though, my dear, because you won't, You're not the kind to attract the men, And, besides, you're getting on, How old are you now"
"Thirtythree," Katherine told her,
"Well," remarked Miss Viner doubtfully, "that's not so very bad, You've lost your first freshness, of course, "
"I'm afraid so," said Katherine, much entertained,

An early statement from Olga: “Most women have that madness, I do not. ”

At one point Derek says: “She might bring me bad luck, Women do. ”

The book is full of such observations about women, which led me to think she was exorcising some demons, making a fun feminist point overall.


This one takes a while to get going, Too long. It doesnt match up to her very best, but I still liked it, I rate it somewhere betweenand, rounded down for some of the slowness of the opening, The resolution is neither all that surprising or satisfying, after we have of course spent the whole book looking at obvious and obviously wrong choices for murderer.
But its a good read, overall, .