THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN

'''The Mystery of the Blue Train''' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in March 1928 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence. It features her detective Hercule Poirot.

Contents

Plot summary

First publication

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Trivia

ISBN

Plot summary

Poirot boards Le Train Bleu, bound for the French Riviera. So does Katherine Grey, who is having her first winter out of England, after having inherited a huge sum in a most romantic manner. While on board she meets Ruth Kettering, an American heiress bailing from a marriage to meet her lover. The next morning, though, Ruth is found dead in her compartment, a victim of strangulation. The theft of her priceless rubies, and rumors of a strange man loitering near her compartment, send Poirot on a quest to find her murderer.
The novel's plot is based on the Poirot short story "The Plymouth Express" (much later collected in Poirot's Early Cases).

First publication

The writing of this book was an ordeal for Christie. The events of 1926 with the death of her mother, her husband's infidelity and her breakdown and ten-day disappearance and left a deep psychological scar and, now separated from Archie Christie and in need of funds she turned back to writing. The story did not come easily to her and she referred to this novel in her autobiography as "rotten". Her biography recounts how the total number of words in the book were carefully tallied up, showing what an ordeal Christie found it to be. It had its effect on her in the middle of wartime when, nervous that at some future point she might be in need of funds and need a fallback, she wrote Sleeping Murder and locked it securely in a bank vault for future publication. Curtain was written at the same time and similarly locked away but publication of this latter book would not be possible until the end of her writing career as it recounts the death of Poirot.
The Times Literary Supplement gave a more positive reaction to the book than Christie herself in its issue of May 3 1928. After recounting the set-up of the story the reviewer concluded: "The reader will not be disappointed when the distinguished Belgian on psychological grounds declines to suspect the arrested husband and, by acting on the suggestion of an ugly girl who consistently derides her preposterous mother, builds up inferences almost out of the air, supports them by a masterly array of negative evidence and lands his fish to the surprise of everyone".

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel was televised by Granada in 2005, and was aired by ITV on 1 January 2006, starring David Suchet as Poirot, Roger Lloyd Pack as Inspector Caux and Elliott Gould as Rufus Van Aldin.

Trivia

★ This novel features the first description of the fictional village of St. Mary Mead, which would later be the home of Christie's detective Miss Marple. This, however, Ms. Anne Hart, in her 'biography' of Miss Marple, assures us, is not the same. This would perhaps explain why Miss Marple is never mentioned.

★ This is the only major work by Agatha Christie where the UK first edition carries no copyright or publication date.

ISBN

★ ISBN 0-425-13026-6 (Hercule Poirot Mysteries; Mass Market Paperback; 2000)

★ ISBN 0-8488-2138-6 (Hard Cover; Reissue Edition; 1999)

★ ISBN 0-8161-4580-6 (Paperback; Large Print; 1992)