Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)

One of Agatha Christie’s poorest efforts with Hercule Poirot, as she herself acknowledged. I wouldn’t say that it is a complete waste of time, but the writing is amateurish and the final conclusion not very satisfying, Poirot’s summary failing miserably. The “murder on a train” plot was done in a much better fashion in “Murder on the Orient Express”.

The key problem in the story is the lack of characters you want to identify with. In many stories, Christie builds up characters that we become very sympathetic to. When some suspect is used as a red herring, either Christie comes up with a justification that we empathize with, or the character is truly bad and comes to a miserable end. In “The Blue Train”, the characters are so skin-deep that I actually wanted one of the “good” characters to be the murderer, which didn’t happen. While the ending itself was pulled out of a hat, it was at the same time totally predictable the way the rest of the book went.

Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

This is one of those mysteries where you are very happy at the conclusion when you are reading the book, but after sometime, you start questioning everything. The book develops as Agatha Christie novels usually do. An initial murder, suspects, additional murders, red herrings followed by the final unveiling of the actual murderer. The explanation seems to fit all the known facts. So you are happy. But then after you put down the book, your mind wanders back to the book and slowly things that you digested seem to float back up.

How do I explain this without any spoilers? Well, first, if the murderer is who he/she is revealed to be, then it is pretty incredible given the other events described in the book which are not connected to the murderer, but happen during the course of the novel. Second, the crime depends on too many things to go exactly right, including the timing. There is also the question as to why the murderer chose this particular method of execution when there were so many easier ways. Why even Mesopotamia for that matter?

Rating: ***** (5 stars out of 5)

This is one of my most favorite Agatha Christie novels. It starts with a surprising twist as a serial murderer taunts Hercule Poirot by sending him letters of his upcoming murders before they happen and challenges him and the police to stop him from getting to his next victim. The victims are chosen using their names that start with  the next letter of the English alphabet in a town that matches the same criteria. The result: A massive manhunt followed by a mind-blowing conclusion.

What is particular brilliant about this novel is that while red herrings abound, the reader is left wondering at the end how they could have missed the obvious solution. There is a key question that is asked and left improperly answered at the start of the story. And it is only when Poirot asks that question again do we understand how we are led astray by emotional thinking. Everything falls into place perfectly at the end, even a minor lie by Poirot. The story-writing is excellent: fast-paced but engaging.