Bookish Inspiration January Reading Challenge Wrap Up

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
2019 #BIyearofclassics
My Rating: ***** out of 5 Stars

This year, I set a reading goal to get some of the “should reads” off of my TBR shelf.  My “should read” books are ones that I feel as if I should have read in high school or college and either never got the opportunity, or just never took the opportunity.   My goal for 2019 is to get 12 of those book titles off of my TBR list and onto my ‘Read’ Shelf by reading one title a month.  

My January book pick was Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.  Check out this link for more information about the pick and the challenge.  

And now for my January Wrap Up! Here are some questions I thought about as I read this month:

Questions and Answers:

What were your overall thoughts about the book?

Overall, I kept wondering what took me this long to read an Agatha Christie book!  I really enjoyed it. These kind of books are right up my alley. I love mysteries and cozy books and this was both.  Christie does an amazing job with her characters. Poirot, the famous detective, is a funny and insightful character. I could not keep up with him!  His thought processes were way beyond me. But that kept the mystery fun and made the book hard to put down.

This story takes place on a train en route to London.  During the night, one of the passengers, a M. Ratchett, is murdered.  There are 13 suspects aboard – none of them seeming to have any connection to Ratchett, at least to the layperson like myself.  Poirot, however, was able to figure out links to not one, but all of the passengers! But which one, or ones, were responsible for his death?

I have to admit, I didn’t see the ending coming, although looking back, I guess I should have!  I can’t really say more without giving it away, but if you haven’t read this Christie mystery yet, I highly recommend it.  You won’t be able to put it down!

Why did Agatha Christie set the murder on a train? What does the train symbolize in the novel?

As @katereadsanddrinks pointed out on Instagram, this book is a twist on a locked room mystery.  Stranded on the tracks near Slovenia, none of the passengers were able to leave the train so everyone knew the murderer was among them.  This adds a bit of suspense to the novel because no one knows who they can trust and who is responsible for the heinous crime.

A train is also a great way to get people from various backgrounds together.  Where else would people from so many different countries come together in such close proximity?  

Agatha Christie based parts of her novel on the real life kidnapping case of Charles Lindbergh. What are the similarities and differences between the true crime story and the fictional Armstrong kidnapping?

To tell the truth, I knew very little about the Lindbergh kidnapping.  But what I found was very interesting. My husband and I ended up watching Nova on Amazon Prime, Season 9, Episode 4:  Who Killed the Lindbergh Baby?  

We found that 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh, Jr., son of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from his home in the middle of the night on March 1, 1932.  After paying a significant ransom to get him back, the boy was found dead in the woods three months after his abduction. In all likelihood, he was killed the same night as his abduction.  

Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested two years later, when some of the ransom money was traced back to him.  He was convicted, received the death penalty, and died in the electric chair on April 30, 1936.

There are theories that Hauptmann didn’t act alone, but he refused to talk, even in the face of the death penalty.  There are even theories that Lindbergh himself was involved. It was an interesting story. Check out the Nova documentary if you have time.  It’s only 53 minutes, and tells a pretty interesting story!

In Murder on the Orient Express, Christie created a character, Mr. Ratchett, alias Cassetti, who had allegedly kidnapped and killed Daisy Armstrong, the daughter of a famous American actress, Linda Armstrong.  Unlike the Lindbergh case, Cassetti was never convicted for the crime, but similar to the real story, there was outcry of injustice from the American people. Both babies were famous because of their famous parents and both were beloved.  Cassetti was forced to leave America under the assumed name, Ratchett. He left with a considerable fortune from his illegal interests as well as the ransom money from the kidnapping. Ratchett is described in the book as an evil looking man with no soul.

An episode of the television show Doctor Who, titled “The Unicorn and the Wasp” (Season 4, Episode 8), features Agatha Christie as a character. In what ways does the episode remain true to history?

I had never watched Dr. Who before and I have to say that it was really not my thing.  But the reference to Christie’s past turned out to be a real story.

In the episode, Christie goes missing for 10 days and walks into a country hotel 10 days later, unable to remember anything.  In real life this happened as well. The entire country was up in arms, looking for their famous and beloved author.

It turns out that Christie’s husband had just left her to go and live with his mistress.  She was devastated and not really thinking clearly. Some thought she disappeared to frame her husband.  While it was never really determined what happened, everyone was glad to have Christie back and eventually she found someone new and remarried.

In addition to this episode, I also watched both versions of the movie, Murder on the Orient Express.  (The 1974 version and the 2017 version) I thought both were very well done.

Both movies had star-studded casts.  The 1974 version starred Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave.  This version’s storyline stuck closer to the book. We watched this on Amazon Prime.

The 2017 version starred Johnny Depp, Judy Dench, Kenneth Branagh and Michelle Pfeiffer.  This storyline did not follow the book as closely, but was much more action-packed than the previous one.  We found this movie on HBO to go.

If you have time, you should check them out.  They are fun movies to watch on a cold, snowy night!

Fun Facts:

During my “research” on this book, I read about Hercule Poirot.  He was such a well-known and well-loved character, when Christie decided that she had written her last Poirot mystery, the New York Times put his obituary on the front page.  It was the first time a fictional character ever received an obituary in the Times.

Agatha Christie is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Bestselling Author. Her books have sold over 2 billion copies in 44 languages. Royalties are about $4 million per year. Agatha Christie is known as one of the world’s most prolific writers.

In Closing:

This was a great first pick for my reading challenge.  It was fun to read, fun to learn about some of the history behind it, and fun to watch the movies based on the book!  January’s pick is going to be hard to top.

February’s #BIreadingchallenge pick will be announced on the blog this Friday, February 1.  Make sure to come back and read all about it!

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