The Twelve Tasks of the Festive Season — Task the Eleventh: The Polar Express:
– Read a book that involves train travel (such as Murder on the Orient Express).
Well, as it happened I did pick Murder on the Orient Express for this square. Not that I’m not intimately familiar with the story as such already — it was actually one of the first books by Agatha Christie that I ever read, not to mention watching (and owning) the screen adaptation starring Albert Finney and half of classic Hollywood’s A list. But I’d never listened to the audio version read by David Suchet, and I am very glad to finally have remedied that now. Not only is Suchet the obvious choice to read any of Christie’s Poirot novels because his name has practically become synonymous with that of the little Belgian himself — great character actor that he is, he was obviously also having the time of his life with all of the story’s other roles, including those of the women; and particularly so, Mrs. Hubbard, whose interpretation by Suchet also gives the listener more than a minor glance at the fun that recent London audiences must have been having watching him appear as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest (drag and all).
A superb reading of one of Agatha Christie’s very best mysteries and one of my all-time favorite books. Bravo, Mr. Suchet!
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I remember reading this in high school and I was outraged by the ending that I haven’t read another Christie book.
What was it that outraged you — the notion of 12 people agreeing on the murder of a single man? Or the fact that they got away with it?
Both, actually. It seemed like a cop-out to me, like Christie painted herself into a corner and took the easy way out.