Have you ever stopped to think about the history behind the books we read and the movies we watch? I have, and I dug deep into one of my favorite books to figure out how this book relates to the past and present.

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie, is about a train called the Orient Express that gets stuck in a snowdrift. While the train is stuck, Samuel Edward Ratchett is killed in his compartment. Knowing that someone on the train is responsible for his murder, detective Hercule Poirot must find out who the killer is before they strike again.

Christie is known as the world’s best-selling novelist, and her books have sold over a billion copies in English and even more in other languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and is only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare. The reason she is so popular is because her mysteries were some of the first ever written and they had compelling detectives and interesting suspects, and they created the real rules of murder mystery.

Murder on the Orient Express is well-written and makes it hard for the reader to guess who the murderer is. The author does this by not revealing too much information at the beginning but instead divulging it slowly as the book goes on. This also creates a suspenseful mood for the reader. Additionally, at the end of the book, Hercule Poirot presents two different solutions to figure out who the murderer is. This helps the reader narrow down their suspects.

The dialogue in the book also makes the book more entertaining to read by showing each character's personality based on how they talk. For example, “The Colonel replied dryly: ‘I stopped for one night to see Ur of the Chaldees and for three days in Baghdad with the A.O.C., who happens to be an old friend of mine.’” This shows the reader how uninterested the colonel is in this interrogation, therefore showing that he is a care-free person.

Murder on the Orient Express follows the steps that detectives have to take to solve a murder. These steps are often still taken today to find murderers all around the globe, and can include examining the body, interviewing witnesses and suspects, and finding evidence to support your reason to find someone guilty. This book also demonstrates that Christie's work is still cherished today because it shows pictures from the movie remake of the book. People still enjoy this book today even though it was written in the 1930s. This suggests that Christie was well-known and the book was very popular. She was popular because she was a great writer who included creative plot structures and psychology in her books. Most of all, her characters had lots of personality. This is most likely how Murder on the Orient Express got the attention of film director Kenneth Branagh.

I think that this book is good because it is written well and the characters' emotions are shown clearly. Christie shows this when new evidence is being presented by witnesses, and each character tells their side of the story. Then Hercule Poirot asks questions based on what they said. As the characters answer questions, they each show their personality by the way they speak.

I enjoyed that Christie makes it hard for the reader to guess who the murderer is. Hercule Poirot asks everyone on the train what they know about the murder, but he can’t get enough information to form a conclusion. He seems to be stuck at a dead end, which makes the reader very doubtful that this case will be solved. This turns the plot sideways, making an effect on the reader. Many of Christie’s stories have sudden mood changes; if the book starts off more calm, then all of a sudden it becomes a lot more violent. One example is the murder that is committed in each book. After each murder, Christie makes the mystery a lot more suspenseful by introducing false leads, having a variety of suspects in each story, and escalating the mystery's tension with each chapter. This happens by making the reader feel like there is no hope of finding the murderer.

Murder on the Orient Express deserves a 5 out of 5-star rating because it is overall a very entertaining book, and it is fun to look at the pictures from the movie remake. The book is good because you can tell what each character is like, and the author’s writing technique makes the book fun to read by adding plot twists and unique ways of finding new evidence. I would definitely recommend reading this book because it is a great novel and is written by one of the best authors in the world.