Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery

I will definitely listen again. This was already my second visit to the story in the past year, I am a Christy and Poirot fan through and through. This particular story is a favorite, and this version was wonderfully narrated.

The nearest I could get might have to be another Christy novel, starring Poirot, which I recently read: The Mystery of the Blue Train. Similar not just because of the author and in the train as crime scene, but that they are also two of the Poirot mysteries which lack Captain Hastings and are 3rd person narratives.

He was fantastic across the board I thought. I may have been predisposed to like him, having been one of his Downton Abbey fans, primarily I do love his voice. But I am constantly dissapointed by narrators I like when they fail to adopt an appropriate voice for the opposite gender, or are imprecise or inconsistent in voicing multiple characters. And if ever there were a test of skills, it is this book - since it is mostly conversation and interviews with characters who range the whole spectrum: male and female, and all classes and several different nationalities. He managed them wonderfully, slipping effortlessly and precisely from one to the other consistently, and there are no fewer than 16 characters. I am beyond impressed, and he has found in me a devoted listener to whatever book he elects to lend his soothing voice to in the future. I have already bought the other Christy novel narrated by him which is currently available on Audible, and I hope there will be many more to come.

Probably. Dan Stevens does give each of the characters a distinctive voice, and there are a lot of characters to keep straight. He's really pretty good at this.

I quite liked the Princess Dragomiroff, an ugly old aristocratic woman with a deep, toady voice and a dry sense of humor.

I quite liked the Princess Dragomiroff, an ugly old aristocratic woman with a deep, toady voice and a dry sense of humor.

I recommend listening to it in just a couple of sittings, yes. Partly that's because it's a potboiler, but also it's because the murder investigation is pretty complex, and it will make the most sense if you've got it all in your head at once.

This is a brilliant story. It almost has the cleverness and brevity you would expect from a short story, but it's long enough that there's a lot to it. It's hard to get started because there are so many characters you feel obliged to keep straight, and you don't know at first what's important and what isn't. But if you can push through the first hour or so, the rest of it is relaxing and rewarding. I'll remember this one.

How do you solve a murder that occurred in a sleeper car aboard a snowbound train, when no one could have entered or exited without leaving footprints in the snow, and everyone had an alibi supported by one or more unrelated passengers? No spoilers here, but unless you've seen the excellent and star-studded 1974 film (for which the incomparable Ingrid Bergman won a well-deserved Oscar), you'll be enthralled by Christie's ingenious (if somewhat implausible, at least in real life) solution.

Dan Stevens provides competent narration, with my only two complaints being that his Hercule Poirot speaks too softly and gently (if you've seen and loved the film, as I have, you'll find yourself longing for Albert Finney's energetic, vigorous and entertaining portrayal of the quirky Belgian detective with his humorous pride in his mustaches and his very justified reliance on the dependability of his "little grey cells"), and that sometimes his rate of speech is too slow, requiring 1.25 speed to get as rapidly as Poirot's grey matter to the thrilling exposition.

Highly recommended for mystery lovers, whether you've seen the film or not. If you have, your enjoyment will be that much greater. If you haven't, you'll want to get it and watch it right away!

This one has been on my list for a while. It is the first and probably last Agatha Christie I will ever read. I understand now why this is such a revered classic. Very clever plot.

That being said, the writing didn't speak to me in any profound way, and the detective/protagonist seemed pretty boring. Clever, yes, but no one I want to know more about.

I'm giving the story high marks for the cleverness of it, and I'm sure that some people will find the characters more interesting than I did.

The narrators ability to portray a wide variety of characters. This book in particular has a cast incredibly diverse, the passengers of the train came from all over the world and social standings but the narrator moved seamlessly from one to the other, and gave me a real sense of a large cast of players.

even though this story is so well known, that the plot twist had been reveled to me long before I had even read this book (much like Soylent Green and Citizen Kane) the attention to detail with the clues left behind and the characters personalities kept me guessing throughout the whole thing.

I always love that classic mystery reveal scene, gathering the suspects together to explain just how the crime was committed and how they were found out. Nobody does it better than Christie.

Detective Poirot's commitment to justice, (I don't want to give away any spoilers) but in the end after he solved the case his decision to serve justice over the law.

Fun thriller with such a twist at the end! It's a must read (or just listen!)

Fun detective story, fantastic acting, accents and voices telling a story with 15 or so characters. Really enjoyable to listen to.

Good mystery. Some of the narrator's dialect was hard to understand, had to keep adjusting volume.

The only bummer about this book was how quickly I finished it. If you are a fan of crime fiction and mystery stories this one will fascinate you. It has fantastic characters, seemingly impossible twists, and a beautiful ending.

This is the first book I've read by Agatha Christie, and it certainly won't be the last. The narrator does an excellent job with inflections, foreign accents, and even French phrases. My only critique for the narration would be slightly more feminine female voices. There were a few times the chosen inflection confused me to the speaker. Otherwise, Dan Stevens did a wonderful job.

Such a fun mystery! Very easy to listen to. Reader does the voices quite well. Exciting until the very end!