Study Guide: Murder on the Orient Express (A BookCaps Study Guide)

By BookCaps

The perfect companion to Gabriel Agatha Christie’s "Murder on the Orient Express," this study guide contains a section analysis of the three parts of the book, a summary of the plot, and a guide to major characters and themes.

BookCap Study Guides do not contain text from the actual book, and are not meant to be purchased as alternatives to reading the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465707048

BookCaps

We all need refreshers every now and then. Whether you are a student trying to cram for that big final, or someone just trying to understand a book more, BookCaps can help. We are a small, but growing company, and are adding titles every month.Visit www.bookcaps.com to see more of our books, or contact us with any questions.

Book preview

Agatha Christie’s

Murder on the Orient Express

Golgotha Press

By BookCaps Study Guides

© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

Published at SmashWords

Historical Context

Agatha Christie was born in England in 1890 and was raised in an upper-middle class home. Christie was homeschooled, and the experiences of her younger days were often reflected in the novels she wrote as an adult. Christie always wanted to write a murder mystery, and asked her sister Madge to help though Madge decided not to, as it was out of her comfort zone.

The main character in Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at the Styles, was named Hercule Poirot and became a fixture in many of Christie’s subsequent novels including Murder on the Orient Express. In 1926 when Christie’s first husband, Archie, asked for a divorce she faked her own death/disappearance though she was soon found complaining of memory loss. In 1930, she married a paleontologist named Max Mallowan who took her on the travels that expanded her knowledge of places and things that would make appearances of her novels.

Murder on the Orient Express was favored by critics and was even made into a movie. Despite the fact that Christie did not often appreciate her books being made into movies, she did quite enjoy that one. For the most part, Christie wrote what she knew, and that was of people who were in the upper-middle class as she was raised. Throughout her life, she penned several novels until her death in 1976, five years after being named a Dame of the British Empire.

Plot

Private detective, Hercule Poirot, is headed to Istanbul via train where he sees two people, Mary Debenham and Colonel Arbuthnot, acting as though they are strangers though Poirot is quite convinced they are not. Once Poirot checks in to his hotel he is summoned back to London and while waiting for a train he runs into his old friend, M. Bouc who offers him a ride on the Orient Express. That evening Poirot sees Ratchett, a man he considers evil, dining with Hector McQueen.

The next day, aboard the Orient Express, Ratchett tells Poirot that he has been getting death threats and asks Poirot to work for him and find out who has been sending the notes but Poirot refuses. The first night on the train Poirot notices some strange things happening, such as a noise from Ratchett’s room, a complaint from Mrs. Hubbard that a man is in her room, and the