A very glamorous train trip.

This time happens to have one Hercule Poirot involved to solve a somewhat surprising murder on board. Not the easiest thing to do - violently dispose of someone on a train full of people. Therefore the usual investigate need the help of the Belgian little grey cells. Definitely one of the better efforts.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/11... ( )

This was originally tagged to appear on my "book rape" shelf because, generally speaking, I would rather slam my head in a car door than read a straight-up mystery. This may be because of burn out at a young age. After devouring the entire Nancy Drew series, I had an epiphany one day that went something like this: "I don't give a damn who did it." It was like someone flipped a switch and I went cold turkey on mysteries (I even remember starting Murder on the Orient Express as a teen and thinking, "Nope. I think I'll go get a Piers Anthony book instead").

However, I have since retracted this book's status as being forcibly thrust upon me because I actually enjoyed it. Color me surprised. Normally, I have these suckers figured out long before the end. After much sighing as I turned each page, knowing in my heart of hearts who the murderer was, imagine my shock when I was wrong. Really. I was. Dead wrong. The ending was, well, genius--and I shall say no more.

Having said that, this is not great writing. I had to roll my eyes every time Poirot's eyes "twinkled" and it's chockfull of stereotypes, but that's not the point. The mark of a good mystery is that it keeps one guessing until the end, and Aggie (that's what I like to call her) certainly did her job well. ( )

My first and favorite Agatha. And, surprise surprise, the movie is fantastic as well, with an ensemble cast including Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave, Lauren Bacall and Anthony Perkins, just to name a few.

Read it, then see it. I never get tired of this one. It makes me want to book tickets on the Calais Coach. ( )

This book is realy interesting and it has an unexpected twist. If you like mysteries, I suggest you read this book. ( )

I avoided reading this for a long time, not least because I remember not liking the film, but having booked a sleeping car for the first time in many years (only from Holland to Switzerland, not across the Balkans!), I thought "What could be more appropriate reading matter?".

This is one of those detective stories where the ending is more famous than the story itself, so I knew how it was going to end and had the sense of cogs grinding inevitably towards a solution. Thereś not much else to enjoy in Christie besides the mystery itself - characterisation and dialogue are always a bit wooden - but it was a pleasant enough read to keep me amused until Basel. There does seem to be rather a lot of product placement for the Wagons-Lits Company - I hope she got more than a complimentary ticket out of them for all that publicity! ( )