Katherine is quite a charming character but she doesn’t leave the same impression as Christie’s other leading women. Including Poirot who becomes quite protective of the young woman. She is a lovely and kind figure who makes quite an impression on everyone she meets. She has lived a sheltered life in the village of St Mary Mead (this book offers us our first glimpse of Miss Marple’s home). Katherine is on the train because she has recently inherited some money. Although, the detective’s fellow passenger, Katherine Grey, provides an eyewitness account that places Ruth’s husband on the train. At the behest of Ruth’s father, he starts investigating the victim’s secret lover.

Luckily, Hercule Poirot was also on board the Blue Train and can’t help but look into the case. But is there more to this case than meets the eye? When it is discovered that the rubies she was carrying have been stolen, the police assume it was simple train robbery. She is planning to meet her lover but is killed before the train arrives at its final destination. Ruth leaves London for the Riviera travelling on the Le Train Bleu. Derek Kettering is in a financial hole and is have a secret tryst with a French dancer. Ruth Kettering, daughter of an American millionaire, has decided to separate from her husband. The characters and setting changed but the basic plot is pretty much the same. Meaning a novel that centres around a married couple who are contemplating separating could tell us a lot about the writer’s mind.īut how does it really fare as a story? The novel was an expansion of one of Christie’s earlier short stories The Plymouth Express. Christie was going through a divorce with her first husband and was writing the book around the time of her mysterious disappearance. Partly because of the time that it was written. Though, it’s still an interesting novel to read. So, going in, you’re already prepared for it to be a bit of a letdown compared to her other work. In her autobiography, she admitted that her major motivation was financial rather than creative. She hadn’t enjoyed writing it and didn’t feel as though the novel really came together. I always find it a bit weird reading The Mystery of the Blue Train knowing that Agatha Christie has so many negative feelings towards it. This has never been one of my favourite Christie stories so I’m never that keen to revisit it. So, I thought I’d indulge in some train travel during my Christie month. My morning commute was nothing very interesting but, now that it’s been taken away from me, I do miss it a bit. Although, it’s been about 8 months since I was last on a train so there might actually be some romanticism there right now. Nowadays, train travel doesn’t have the same romantic appeal as it may once have done. More importantly, she bloody loved to see them feature in her murder mysteries. Agatha Christie and trains go together like Hercule Poirot and a well-groomed moustache.

The blue train agatha christie