I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing and aren’t writing particularly well. That was the moment when I changed from being an amateur to a professional. I was driven on by the desire, indeed the necessity, to write another book and make some money. I knew, as one might say, where I was going, but I could not see the scene in my mind’s eye, and the people would not come alive. I had worked out the plot – a conventional plot, partly adapted from one of my other stories. To begin with I had no joy in writing, no élan.

In her autobiography she wrote that it had not been easy writing it and that she had always “hated” it: Authors are always said to be no judge of their own books.’ĭo you agree? Or was Agatha Christie being a little harsh on herself? Tell us on Twitter.Agatha Christie didn’t enjoy writing The Mystery of the Blue Train (first published in 1928). Commenting on the novel in An Autobiography Christie wrote, ‘each time I read it again, I think it commonplace, full of clichés, with an uninteresting plot. The biggest critic of The Mystery of the Blue Train was the author herself. In Agatha Christie’s mind, this was the turning point in her career where she changed from an amateur to a professional author. They arrived by steam boat, disembarking in the main port of Santa Cruz before heading north to Valle de la Orotava. She had headed to the island after struggling through a difficult period in her life, taking her daughter Rosalind with her. Let a good murder mystery come within his ken, and he just can't be kept out of it.” The New York Times Book Review August 1928Īgatha Christie wrote most of The Mystery of the Blue Train whilst visiting Tenerife in the Canary Islands. 'Nominally Poirot has retired, but retirement means no more to him than it does to a prima donna. Miss Grey gets mixed up with the shady characters and tangled plots that weave around the central murder, and along the journey meets Hercule Poirot, who is pulled into investigating the crime despite his intention to travel for leisure.

We see the scene through the eyes of naïve heroine Katherine Grey, who has recently come into a substantial inheritance. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board.ĭerived from her short story The Plymouth Express, the novel transports readers onto a deluxe sleeper train bound for the South of France, and into the glamorous world of the French Riviera. The prime suspect is Ruth’s estranged husband, Derek. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. But she will never wake again for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers.

The blue train agatha christie