September has been a month of growing anticipation and expectation; the start of a new academic year, but also a milestone in the literary calendar as we reach the 125th anniversary of the best-selling novelist of all time.
Agatha Christie, born on the 15th of September 1890, wrote over 80 novels, short story collections and plays. Her work has only been outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare, an awe-inspiring accomplishment that leaves me feeling ludicrously overwhelmed. In the spirit of things I thought I’d tackle one of her Poirot novels before the onset of term. Murder on the Orient Express is the 10th Poirot novel and was voted this month to be the world’s second favourite Agatha Christie novel (surpassed by And Then There Were None, which is being adapted for screen and released this winter). On his return to London via the Orient Express, Poirot stumbles into a case. The train comes to a standstill in a snowstorm, one of the passengers is murdered and the killer remains on the train. Poirot, calm and collected with a meticulous eye for detail, launches himself into an investigation which leaves us guessing until the very end. The structure of the novel takes the reader methodically through the case, presenting the evidence and even including a map of the carriages. It is very easy to get submerged in the details. I finished the novel in the mind-set that I could easily inhale another. I can definitely see the reasons why Agatha Christie became so popular.
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