Murder On The Orient Express | Setting

Murder on the Orient Express

Gemma Thornley

Murder on the Orient Express is a famous mystery novel by the prolific British author, Agatha Christie. She is one of the greatest mystery authors of all time, and has written 91 one books under various pen names, as well as her real name. I am personally not much of her fan as I find her books a bit boring and very uniform, but because of this reason I haven't read many. I decided it would be the right book for the project because I haven't read many of her books in a while, and this one was quite famous an is known as one of her best works. 

Murder on the Orient Express is a member of her 'Poirot' series, which is probably her most famous. It is a series of thirty five mystery books all set around the iconic main character, and detective, Hercule Poirot. Murder on the Orient express is the tenth book in this series, and quite a well known novel.

So far, I am a few chapters through the book, on page sixty nine. out of the total 256. I am only this far through because I only started the book yesterday, as earlier this week I read two other books - the Clockwork Angel and the Clockwork prince, and didn't have time for my mystery novel. I will probably spend the rest of my weekend reading it, but I wanted to get the blog post over and done with this morning so I could do just that. I am enjoying the book very much, and the murder recently just happened, and it is all very exciting.

Murder on the Orient Express is set... *drumroll please*... on.. The Orient Express! The Orient Express is actually a real long distance passenger train that goes through Europe and some routes even go into Asia. The book is set in the 1930's and the Orient Express is filled with a variety of dignified characters travelling on the prestigious train. The people on the train were usually quite rich, especially in the upper classes where you would get billionaires and barons and artitocrats alike. There are a variety of characters on the train, from different nations and places, all going in the same direction. The whole train is completely full, with no available carriages or berths. For Poirot to get on the train, he had to take the carriage of one of the passengers who slightly delayed.

 This is uncommon for Winter, when it is set, as there are usually disruptions on the tracks, and not many people are travelling. The snow has caused many problems on the train, and at the current stage in the book, the whole train is at a standstill, not being able to move because of the sheer amount of snow in Yugoslavia. In the book the train has passed through most of the Balkans. The last stop before the train stopped was in Belgrade, where everyone stopped simply to get some fresh air. Many of the passengers make derogatory  remarks about the Balkans, and it is the only country that the train goes through where there are no police stationed on the train. When the train comes to a halt, they don't expect anyone to come and help them for days at the least.
The social hub on the train is the restaurant-car, where everyone spends their free time, and where much of the discussion takes place. In the restaurant the guests are served by waiters with lavish foods, and they spend their time discussing different matters, and forming friendships. Since the space in the train is limited as it is a closed space, most of the guests stay in the restaurant car for the social experience. 

I am enjoying the book very much, and this far through I can tell it will be quite a good mystery, and since it as Agatha Christie, it will be quite hard to figure out who was the criminal. I am looking forward to reading the story and finding out more about the characters and the story as it unfolds.