Product Description

A millionaire strikes a deal on the seedier side of Paris and a priceless cache of rubies becomes destined for his beloved daughter Rachel. Two days later Rachel is dead - murdered on a train on her way to the Riviera to meet her scoundrel lover: a mysterious, dark man. The suspects line up...only master slueth Hercule Poirot can unravel the mystery and find the truth. Maurice Denhham stars as the great Belgian detective in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19650 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-09
• Released on: 2006-01-09
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

About the Author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Customer Reviews

Daft, Charming And Gorgeous Fun!
I do love this magnificently spirited dramatisation of one of the novels from Agatha Christie's Early Loopy Period (such novels as The Mystery Of The Blue Train and The Secret Of Chimneys, and to be distinguished from her Late Loopy Period by its high level of joie de vivre... Christie's later loopiness seems to stem from a feeling that the world has gone so crazy she can write about *anything* and get away with it, see Destination Unknown or Passenger To Frankfurt for evidence...) which is enlivened by a superior performace by Janet Maw as the Poor-But-Honest-Companion-Turned-Fabulously-Wealthy-Heiress-Off-To-Seek-Adventure. (Look, if you don't like stereotypes, stay away from Agatha Christie. She was the *Shakespeare* of the stereotype.)

The Radio 4 team have made the sensible decision to avoid taking the book seriously, and what we have here is an immensely enjoyable hams' holiday with utterly hilarious Rich-Vulgar-Americans, Sly-French-Minxes, Noble-Long-Suffering-Brits, Not-Quite-So-Noble-Not-Very-Long-Suffering-Brits (Can you tell which is which? It's important!) and of course the elegantly presposterous Hercule Poirot all chasing the legendary rubies of Catherine The Great. Which are acted by their very own sound effect. Oh, I tell you it's just delicious... Bravo to the Beeb for this one, and I do hope they decide to to give the High NRG treatment to some other worthy examples of Agatha Christie at her goofiest. The Secret Of Chimneys or The Seven Dials Mystery would respond especially well to the camp treatment used here!

Train Travel with Agatha Christie.
Luxury trains travelling to holiday resorts provided an irresistible setting for novelists and filmmakers in the decades between the two world wars. Agatha Christie's 1928 murder mystery features the Blue Train, travelling across France to the Riviera, and a cast of travellers that includes Hercule Poirot.

There has to be motivation for the murder that occurs, and so expect a lot of business concerning precious jewels, international intrigues and complicated human relationships. There is also a former lady's companion who has lived for several years at that famous Christie location, St Mary Mead. She is not Miss Marple.

Agatha Christie considered this her worst novel. Colouring her judgment were recollections of several unhappy events in her own life that occurred during the time she wrote it: the breakdown of her Christie marriage and the death of her mother. I think its best quality is the considerable exposure it gives to Hercule Poirot. Seldom is he seen in the pages of an Agatha Christie novel as much as in "The Mystery of the Blue Train".

Disappointing
Dull and far too long, Christie rightly judged this as being her worst novel. The characters are cold and unlikable, and even Poirot himself doesn't seem to be too interested in the case.

What "The Mystery of the Blue Train" suffers from, perhaps more than anything else, is a lack of insight into what is going through Poirot's mind. In most of the other Poirot novels, Poirot takes on a friend as an unofficial detective to aid him in his investigations - most commonly either Captain Hastings or Ariadne Oliver - and it is by sharing what he is thinking with these characters, who in turn share their findings with the reader. Katherine Grey just doesn't work as a sidekick: the reader is given a limited amound of insight into her personality before the murder - and after it, there is even less.

The other characters weren't much better. By the end of the novel, I barely knew who had murdered the girl out of the enormous cast of characters - much less did I care. The victim herself, a young American heiress, plummeted to new levels of vapid in every chapter until she died, at which point she redoubled her efforts. Secret affairs, jewellery thieves, Paris - these elements should all make up an exciting story, but to be perfectly honest, I came away with the impression that the girl was a shallow brat and the world was better off without her.

I suppose the bottom line is, as I feel with all Poirot novels, you do ultimately get what you paid for. Christie's novels are great for escapism, and even when the story is unconvincing (as is the case here), the minutiae of the crime is far more expertly crafted than anything you'll find today. "The Mystery of the Blue Train" didn't work for me, but the Poirot universe is as charming as ever, and probably worth reading for that alone.

This particular edition includes colour photographs from the Suchet adaptation, as well as some short interviews with the actors playing the important roles. While the actors didn't necessarily come across so well, the photos were a welcome addition, especially if, like me, you're not especially talented at visualising what the author is describing.