Following MURDER AT THE MANOR, the Mystery Guild returns to the Agatha Christie library with DAME AGATHA ABROAD, containing three full novels by the legendary author.
Arguably the best-known of the three is MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, so it rightfully kicks off the omnibus. Master sleuth Hercule Poirot is one of the passengers on an international railway; another passenger turns up dead, stabbed a dozen times, in the middle of the night when the train is stopped by a snowstorm. Using his unique powers of deduction (some amusingly based on ridiculous stereotypes, i.e. Italians like to stab people, British women are cold because they have no figures), Poirot is able to solve this most peculiar crime, complicated when the victim is discovered to have been a famed child murderer.
Christie’s storytelling is as straightforward as Poirot’s investigation, with each chapter dedicated to the testimony of an individual passenger, then to the summary of facts. Just when you think the story has far too many circumstances of convenience to be credible, Christie throws an incredible curveball that justifies ORIENT’s rep as a classic.
Like the brilliant AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, ORIENT throws multiple characters into one compact setting, which Christie is able to juggle well. Just not always, as MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA shows. A first-person account by a nurse regarding a murder at an archeaological dig – and the Poirot investigation that follows – it’s decidedly a minor Christie work, not involving enough for me to even want to know the solution. This collection also includes THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD, but I’m leaving it alone for the time being.
ORIENT is a bonafide gem, so if you look at that as the main feature and the other two novels as gravy, this is a good value. –Rod Lott
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