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Mystery of the Blue Train

Mystery of the Blue Train

ClassicsCrime
Pages
170
Published
1955
Language
English

Synopsis

Aboard the luxurious Blue Train bound from Calais to the French Riviera, an unhappy American heiress travels toward a reunion she has long awaited. By the time the carriages reach Nice she lies dead in her compartment, strangled, and the famous ruby she carried against her father's warning has vanished. Hercule Poirot, taking the same train south for a quiet holiday, finds himself drawn into the case almost at once. The dead woman left behind a tangle of relationships any of which might conceal a motive: a millionaire father determined to see justice done, an estranged husband burdened by debt and a bad reputation, a former lover whose aristocratic title may be as false as his charm, and a jealous dancer with secrets of her own. A reserved Englishwoman who has recently come into money and shared a few words with the victim becomes Poirot's unlikely confidante as he reconstructs the final hours. Working backward from a missing jewel and a glimpsed stranger, Poirot weighs each account against the others, testing alibis and watching for the small inconsistency that betrays a careful liar. The pleasures of wealth, travel, and reinvention run alongside older grudges and the lure of a priceless stone, and Poirot's task is to decide which of them turned to murder. Drawing on patience and his understanding of human nature, he sifts performance from truth among people who all have something to hide.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

MysteriousTense

Genres

Classics Crime Mystery Historical Fiction Romance Thriller

About the author

A
Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time and the writer the world calls the "Queen of Crime." Born Agatha Miller in Torquay, Devon, she came to fiction on a dare: her sister Madge bet she could not write a convincing detective story, and the result, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Her dispensing work in a hospital pharmacy during the First World War, repeated again during the Second, gave her the expert knowledge...

Characters

Hercule PoirotProtagonist

The famed Belgian detective who investigates the murder on a luxury train.

Katherine GreySupporting

A composed Englishwoman of about thirty-three who, after years as a paid companion, inherits a fortune and travels south; she speaks with the victim shortly before the murder and becomes Poirot's confidante.

Rufus Van AldinSupporting

Ruth's American millionaire father, who gave her the famous ruby and is determined to see the killer found.

Derek KetteringSupporting

Ruth's estranged, debt-ridden husband with a poor reputation; his presence and motives make him an early focus of suspicion.

Comte de la RocheSupporting

A smooth supposed aristocrat and Ruth's former lover whose noble title masks humbler and less honest origins.

All characters in Mystery of the Blue Train

Frequently asked questions

  • When was The Mystery of the Blue Train first published?

    It was first published in the United Kingdom by William Collins & Sons on 29 March 1928. Editions dated later, such as 1955, are reprints rather than the original publication.

  • Where does the novel fall in the Hercule Poirot series?

    It is the sixth Hercule Poirot novel. The series is widely catalogued with this book at position six among Christie's full-length Poirot mysteries.

  • Is the story based on an earlier work by Christie?

    Yes. Christie expanded her 1923 Poirot short story 'The Plymouth Express' into this full-length novel five years later, keeping a very similar plot while changing names and details and moving the setting onto the Riviera express.

  • Why did Agatha Christie dislike this book?

    She wrote much of it amid the painful aftermath of 1926, the year of her mother's death, her husband's affair, the breakdown of her marriage, and her famous ten-day disappearance. She later said she had always hated the book, that there was no joy in the writing, and called it among her least favorite of her own novels.

  • What did Christie say this book proved about her career?

    Despite hating the experience, she regarded it as a turning point that marked her shift from an amateur author to a professional, since she finished it under pressure and delivered it to her publishers even when the work brought her no pleasure.

  • Is the Blue Train a real train?

    Yes. The story is set aboard Le Train Bleu, the real luxury overnight express that carried wealthy travelers from Calais and Paris down to the French Riviera in the 1920s.

  • Has the novel been adapted for television?

    Yes. It was adapted as an episode of the ITV series Agatha Christie's Poirot starring David Suchet, broadcast in the mid-2000s, with the action reset to the late 1930s to match the rest of that series.

  • What sets the investigation in motion?

    An American heiress is found strangled in her compartment aboard the Blue Train and a priceless ruby she was carrying goes missing, drawing Poirot, who happens to be on the same train, into the case.

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