Murder on the Orient Express Review
By Agatha Christie
Reviewed by Oren Raynes
Book 13 of 2026
The Writing
What I liked the most about Christie’s writing is that it’s still fresh and readable. What I mean to say by that is that since this piece was written almost a hundred years ago, the story is still very readable. Christie doesn’t use an enlarged vocabulary that requires the reader to have a dictionary at hand, doesn’t use specific technical jargon, and she focuses on the characters of the story more than anything else. I am also reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the contrast is wild! Shelley is the complete opposite of Christie in word use, and I do require a dictionary for that one. To be completely fair though, Frankenstein was written almost another hundred years before Murder on the Orient Express.
For my first foray into the writing of Agatha Christie, I am really pleased with what I have read and am excited to read more of her work in the future.
The Story
I found the story to be simple and easy to follow. I thought the characters were mostly well crafted and unique. I wish there had been more depth at times. For example, the character Bouc and the Doctor felt like they were intentionally dumb so that Hercule could look smarter without Christie having to actually make him smarter, which I suppose is one way of showing contrast between characters.
The Takeaway
I would 100% recommend this book to anyone. It was simple, quick, and interesting. In my mind, the book is a piece of literary history and everyone should be reading it. Also, it has been made into a movie so we can do a book-to-movie judgment session! I love ripping apart movies that are based on books.
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