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Agatha Christie Crime Collection: Murder on the Orient Express / Death in the Clouds / Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Death in the clouds
This is one of the classics of detective fiction. A woman is slain in, of all places, the cabin of an airliner in mid flight. A dozen potential witnesses, including the sharply observant Hercule Poirot, are present when the deed is done; yet nobody notices anything amiss until the victim is discovered not to be asleep, as the steward had thought, but cleverly murdered.
One great point about Poirot is his ability to judge the true significance of trivia in the light of his special brand of imaginative logic. In no case of Poirot's has his gift been more valuable. Somewhere, among the trifling and apparently inconsequential actions of the passengers, or among the odd assortment of belongings that a search of their baggage reveals, is the key that will begin to make everything clear.
Why didn't they ask Evans?
People had fallen over cliffs before, and at first there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about the accident at Marchbolt. The man was a stranger, and presumably unaware of the perils of the cliff path.
There was nothing Bobby could do except wait with him for the help that would surely arrive too late. As he waited, the dying man suddenly spoke. "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
That was all he said; and the words seemed so inconsequential that Bobby did not even mention then at the inquest. Later, when he did report them to mysterious Mr. Cayman, strange and disturbing things began to happen and it began to seem that somebody had powerful reasons for wanting Bobby out of his way. In trying to discover why, Bobby and his friends find themselves involved in something very much more than a simple matter of accidental death.
Murder on the Orient Express
With one mystery successfully concluded, Hercule Poirot is en route from Aleppo to London where his aid on another case is eagerly awaited. but on this occasion the Orient Express does not run strictly according to the international timetable.
In the middle of the night, in the heart of Yugoslavia, the train comes to a halt - and next morning it is still halted. A snowdrift is blocking the line ahead; the passengers, with one exception, face the prospect of a wait which could amount to days.
The exception lies dead; stabbed not once but over and over again by an apparently frenzied killer. Or was it two killers? That, like the sleeping compartment bolted from the inside, is part of the puzzle Poirot is asked to solve.
This is one of the classics of detective fiction. A woman is slain in, of all places, the cabin of an airliner in mid flight. A dozen potential witnesses, including the sharply observant Hercule Poirot, are present when the deed is done; yet nobody notices anything amiss until the victim is discovered not to be asleep, as the steward had thought, but cleverly murdered.
One great point about Poirot is his ability to judge the true significance of trivia in the light of his special brand of imaginative logic. In no case of Poirot's has his gift been more valuable. Somewhere, among the trifling and apparently inconsequential actions of the passengers, or among the odd assortment of belongings that a search of their baggage reveals, is the key that will begin to make everything clear.
Why didn't they ask Evans?
People had fallen over cliffs before, and at first there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about the accident at Marchbolt. The man was a stranger, and presumably unaware of the perils of the cliff path.
There was nothing Bobby could do except wait with him for the help that would surely arrive too late. As he waited, the dying man suddenly spoke. "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
That was all he said; and the words seemed so inconsequential that Bobby did not even mention then at the inquest. Later, when he did report them to mysterious Mr. Cayman, strange and disturbing things began to happen and it began to seem that somebody had powerful reasons for wanting Bobby out of his way. In trying to discover why, Bobby and his friends find themselves involved in something very much more than a simple matter of accidental death.
Murder on the Orient Express
With one mystery successfully concluded, Hercule Poirot is en route from Aleppo to London where his aid on another case is eagerly awaited. but on this occasion the Orient Express does not run strictly according to the international timetable.
In the middle of the night, in the heart of Yugoslavia, the train comes to a halt - and next morning it is still halted. A snowdrift is blocking the line ahead; the passengers, with one exception, face the prospect of a wait which could amount to days.
The exception lies dead; stabbed not once but over and over again by an apparently frenzied killer. Or was it two killers? That, like the sleeping compartment bolted from the inside, is part of the puzzle Poirot is asked to solve.
511 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
5 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,822 books76.2k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
putting-down-for-now
May 28, 2022The rating for the entire Omnibus is
Onto the second book in this Crime Collection! I will give a separate review/rating for each story, listing them below.
* Death In The Clouds *
Read: 27th April 2020 - 28th April 2020.
Rating: 4.5 🌟.
Wow!! This was a corker of a read and I really can't remember reading it all those years ago. This devious murder mystery tested everyone's grey matter, with poor Poirot but a few seats away from the murdered passenger, but asleep the entire time. 😴 I thought I had the culprit worked out but I was wrong!
* Murder On The Orient Express *
Read: 28th April 2020 - 30th April 2020.
Rating: 5 Scintillating 🌟.
What can I say about this exceptional cult classic that hasn't been said a million times before. It's my favourite Christie and Poirot tale so far and it'll probably still be my favourite at the conclusion of this collection. It was also based on a true crime that shocked the world at that time - the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping case, when the child of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and murdered.
This is another classic novel that has multiple movie/tv/stage adaptations. From Albert Finney's movie Poirot (also starring Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave & Sean Connery) in 1974 to the 2017 movie starring Kenneth Branagh. I find it hard to choose which is the better version between the Finney film or the exceptional David Suchet TV episode in 2010.
* Why Didn't They Ask Evans? *
Read: 15th May 2020 - 17th May 2020.
May 2020 - May 2020.
Rating:
Onto the second book in this Crime Collection! I will give a separate review/rating for each story, listing them below.
* Death In The Clouds *
Read: 27th April 2020 - 28th April 2020.
Rating: 4.5 🌟.
Wow!! This was a corker of a read and I really can't remember reading it all those years ago. This devious murder mystery tested everyone's grey matter, with poor Poirot but a few seats away from the murdered passenger, but asleep the entire time. 😴 I thought I had the culprit worked out but I was wrong!
* Murder On The Orient Express *
Read: 28th April 2020 - 30th April 2020.
Rating: 5 Scintillating 🌟.
What can I say about this exceptional cult classic that hasn't been said a million times before. It's my favourite Christie and Poirot tale so far and it'll probably still be my favourite at the conclusion of this collection. It was also based on a true crime that shocked the world at that time - the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping case, when the child of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and murdered.
This is another classic novel that has multiple movie/tv/stage adaptations. From Albert Finney's movie Poirot (also starring Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave & Sean Connery) in 1974 to the 2017 movie starring Kenneth Branagh. I find it hard to choose which is the better version between the Finney film or the exceptional David Suchet TV episode in 2010.
* Why Didn't They Ask Evans? *
Read: 15th May 2020 - 17th May 2020.
May 2020 - May 2020.
Rating:
December 21, 2021
As a big Agatha Christie fan, volumes like this one will always be a hit with me. 3 novels in 1 volume. The three stories here were "Murder on the Orient Express", "Death In The Clouds" and "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?"
Of these three novels, two were entirely new to me. The only one I had read before was the first of the three, "Murder on the Orient Express".
"Murder on the Orient Express" is one of the most well-known Agatha Christie novels. In my opinion, it will always be a classic. While I'm familiar with it, I don't recall every single detail, and it seems complex enough to still keep me guessing each time I revisit it. Each re-read feels a little different.
I've read most of the Poirot novels at this point, but this was my first time reading "Death in the Clouds". It was pleasant to read, not too long. Poirot is my favourite detective, and for that reason, it gave me more of what I'm familiar with and have grown to love, as an avid reader of Christie.
It was also my first time reading "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" It was another pleasant read, with enough surprises to keep the reader guessing, and an outcome that I appreciated.
Each of these are crime novels on their own, but there is something so satisfying about having three of them in one book, which is why I hold books like this in such high regard.
Of these three novels, two were entirely new to me. The only one I had read before was the first of the three, "Murder on the Orient Express".
"Murder on the Orient Express" is one of the most well-known Agatha Christie novels. In my opinion, it will always be a classic. While I'm familiar with it, I don't recall every single detail, and it seems complex enough to still keep me guessing each time I revisit it. Each re-read feels a little different.
I've read most of the Poirot novels at this point, but this was my first time reading "Death in the Clouds". It was pleasant to read, not too long. Poirot is my favourite detective, and for that reason, it gave me more of what I'm familiar with and have grown to love, as an avid reader of Christie.
It was also my first time reading "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" It was another pleasant read, with enough surprises to keep the reader guessing, and an outcome that I appreciated.
Each of these are crime novels on their own, but there is something so satisfying about having three of them in one book, which is why I hold books like this in such high regard.
August 5, 2024
Enchanted by Christie's works although it was my first time to read her and it was worth it, I never felt bore any moment while reading this great book. The way she narrates the story is extraordinary. I haven't got words to express my feelings so I will concluded it on this that reading a good book is 1000 times better than wasting time on social media
March 12, 2022
Here we have a selection of Agatha Christie Novels showing the versatility of a great crime writer.
May 31, 2015
Book 1 - 5 stars
That was really amazing!!! I never would have guessed. At the start I had thought it was one person but by the end, I was very, very confused as to who it was. Great book.
Book 2 - 4 stars
This one wasn't as good as the first, but it was still pretty good. I never would have expected him to be the murderer, but I guess appearances and personalities can be deceiving.
Book 3 - 3 stars
This one was average. It was still good, but not one of her best.
I guessed that he was part of it because he was trying to deflect suspicion from himself by pointing out someone else but I never would have suspected her.
Appearances can be deceiving and personalities can change in the blink of an eye.
That was really amazing!!! I never would have guessed. At the start I had thought it was one person but by the end, I was very, very confused as to who it was. Great book.
Book 2 - 4 stars
This one wasn't as good as the first, but it was still pretty good. I never would have expected him to be the murderer, but I guess appearances and personalities can be deceiving.
Book 3 - 3 stars
This one was average. It was still good, but not one of her best.
I guessed that he was part of it because he was trying to deflect suspicion from himself by pointing out someone else but I never would have suspected her.
Appearances can be deceiving and personalities can change in the blink of an eye.
December 27, 2021
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7...
Murder on the Orient Express : 8/10 ; read 2009, 2011
Death in the Clouds : 8/10 : read 2011, 2014, 2016
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? : read 2016
Murder on the Orient Express : 8/10 ; read 2009, 2011
Death in the Clouds : 8/10 : read 2011, 2014, 2016
Why Didn't They Ask Evans? : read 2016
March 28, 2014
Good book, interesting turns.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews