The Mystery of the Blue Train – Agatha Christie

The daughter of an American millionaire dies on a train en route for Nice…When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again — for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. The prime suspect is Ruth’s estranged husband, Derek. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board!

A cracking good old fashioned mystery – from the Queen of crime herself. This is a very early Poirot mystery from 1928 – it is funny how AC had Poirot describing himself on a couple of occaisons as "an old man" – pity she hadn’t realised that she would still be writing Poirot in the 1970’s and made him a bit younger – Poirot’s age has never made any sense. The style is a bit different from many later Poirot novels – we don’t have a country house or small village setting – (although St Mary Mead makes an early appearence as the home of Katherine Grey) and many of the Characters and suspects are given much greater voice than in later AC works. Poirot himself is a much more minor figure in the first half of the book. A murder takes place aboard the famous millionaires train – the so called Blue Train – and some valuble rubies go missing at the same time. Luckily a certain retired Belgian is aboard the train, and he soon gets to the heart of the matter.
Great stuff for a chilly weekend – Agatha Christie is just perfect for a cosy weekend read. I do love old Poirot – however old he may have been.