The Mystery of the Blue Train: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie
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Book Summary Information
Author: Agatha ChristieEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-30
ISBN: 1579126952
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Book Reviews of The Mystery of the Blue Train: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
Book Review: "Life is Like a Train. It Goes On..."
Summary: 3 Stars
Every writer has their off-days; every writer has the results of those off-days. For Agatha Christie, it was "The Mystery of the Blue Train." Around the same time she wrote this book the author was dealing with the recent death of her mother, the divorce proceedings between herself and an unfaithful husband, and a nervous breakdown that led to her unexplained disappearance for ten days. In her autobiography she describes the novel as one that she "always hated" and that the experience was such an ordeal that she kept a careful tally of the word count.
I think anyone can be forgiven for writing a sub-par novel in such circumstances, especially a writer that diligently churned out one novel per year for approximately five decades. As such, some may want to skip "Mystery on the Blue Train" as the worst of the Christie mysteries; others may want to read it for precisely this reason.
Katherine Grey has just come into a great deal of money and having spent most of her life as a lady's companion, has decided to travel to the French Riviera in order to enjoy her freedom for the first time. It is on board the Blue Train that she meets Ruth Kettering, daughter of the American billionaire Rufus Van Aldin and soon to be ex-wife of the degenerate Derek Kettering.
Ruth is in some distress as she is on her way to meet her lover but concerned about the jewel in her possession: the priceless Heart of Fire ruby. After a restless night on board the train, Ruth is found dead in her cabin; strangled and horridly disfigured. But Katherine has also made the acquaintance of Hercule Poirot, who soon allies himself with the French police in order to bring Ruth's killer to justice.
Simply put, "Blue Train" doesn't quite *feel* like a Christie novel. Though she is a master-plotter, here the disparate threads never really mesh together properly, and looking over the book in hindsight, many of the scenes and characters feel rather pointless. Even Poirot seems oddly subdued. In most of her other books, Christie doesn't waste a single word in the careful crafting of her puzzles; here, there are several chapters which feel extraneous (Katherine's lengthy introduction, or pretty much anything involving Kettering's spurned mistress).
Conversely, Christie neglects to wrap up important elements of the crime, something seldom - if ever - seen in her other books. For instance, the fact that Ruth's face is battered beyond recognition is a fairly important plot point here, although we learn *why* it happened, we never learn who did it, or with what instrument.
It's hard to explain, but everything just seems a bit "off". Knowing what was going on in Christie's life at the time, it's easy to tell that she was distracted. But when discussing a writer like Christie her "bad book" becomes more of a curiosity than an out-and-out bore. If you are a fan of her work, then I absolutely recommend "Blue Train" considering it is an intriguing look at the fallible side of the grand dame. And of course, her successes seem all the sweeter when compared with a failure.
Worth noting is that the book's train setting was partially inspired by her earlier short story "The Mystery of the Plymouth Express" and is used again in Murder on the Orient Express which is largely considered to be one of her finest novels. As a mystery, it's mildly entertaining, as a Christie novel it's certainly at the bottom rung of her canon, but as a glimpse into an author's life, it makes a lot of sense in context.
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