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Murder on Board: The Mystery of the Blue Train / What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw /Death in the Air
Three Complete Mystery Novels
1) The Mystery of the Blue Train
2) Death in the Air
3) What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
1) The Mystery of the Blue Train
2) Death in the Air
3) What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
601 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 1974
19 people are currently reading
643 people want to read
About the author
Agatha Christie
5,790 books74.9k 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)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 25, 2022
4,5 stars - English Ebook
Review follows later
Review follows later
January 28, 2023
Never suspected this at all.
Read
March 12, 2019Finished the Mystery of the Blue Train. Well written. Had me guessing and no I didn't figure it out.
My Second Read is What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw. Finished this on March 11th. Again the ending was a surprise but now I know, Agathe Christie leads you astry by casting suspition on all the obvious characters then pull the ending out of her bonnet. Well done and interesting read.
My Second Read is What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw. Finished this on March 11th. Again the ending was a surprise but now I know, Agathe Christie leads you astry by casting suspition on all the obvious characters then pull the ending out of her bonnet. Well done and interesting read.
September 17, 2024
I was excited to read this book since I’d heard so many good things, and the premise seemed really promising. However, I didn’t like it at all. It was boring, and the ending wasn’t shocking—I had to read it twice just to understand what actually happened.
Read
August 3, 2008Only "Death in the Air"
March 9, 2025
Lovely. I am now binge reading Agatha Christie which is very enjoyable indeed.
October 27, 2022
Review title: Planes, trains, and mayhem
This book club edition combines three Agatha Christie mysteries united on the setting of events in transit by train and plane. The anonymity of a solo passenger--isolated by their very immersion in a crowd of fellow anonymous solo passengers--is an enabling theme in these stories. Two of the three are Hercule Poirot, all bluster and ego and indirection and mustaches so ably played by Kenneth Branagh, and the third is a Miss Marple, with her quiet direct logic.
What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw was a murder glanced through the window of her train and the window of a train running in the same direction on a parallel track. When the two window were in sync for a few brief seconds stunned the elderly Mrs., who promptly reported it to the steward in her car, a policeman at the station where both cars where slowing to arrive, and to her friend Miss Marple, who then took the witness to retell the story to yet another policeman familiar with Miss Marple's calm detecting skills. But when there was no news about the apparent murder in the press and no dead body reported found on a train, the two ladies hatched a plan to investigate the case on their own to help convince the police that the event had actually happened.
Of the six Christie mysteries I have just read (the first three in Make Mine Murder, another book club three-in-one edition) Death in the Air was the only one I guessed the right suspect for the murder based on a seemingly insignificant detail very early in the story. When a passenger was murdered in a Paris-to-Croyden flight by a poisoned dart in a cabin with only ten other passengers and two stewards, it seemed at first impossible that it happened, impossible that the murderer got away with it, and then impossible to solve. Fortunately for the police on both sides of the Channel, Hercule was one of the passengers and in fact an early suspect, and while I guessed right almost from the start, the dame of mysteries had me questioning my guess until Poirot unveiled the mystery in the last few pages.
The Mystery of the Blue Train was perhaps the least intriguing of the six, and, originally published in 1928, the oldest of the six, perhaps a testament to the growth of Christie as a writer. Blue Train was also the longest by a few pages and seemed to have more descriptions and less dialogue than the others, telling the story of a murder of an unhappy British wife on a continental train by a suspect or suspects not even supposed to be on board. In all three stories money was a motive, and family members (some near in relation, age, and geography, some distant in all three characteristics) were suspects. As I read these three stories and tried to work through the logic to solve the mysteries, I was reminded that real life crimes like murder are usually not logical but highly emotional and logically messy.
Both of these omnibus editions were published for book clubs, which in the Age of the e-book, audio book, and social media seem like a far-distant historical anomaly, much like record clubs that let you select 12 albums for a penny as long as you promised to buy one per month at full price over the next two years. It is interesting that both were on the shelf of my local public library, waiting I suppose for readers like me who wants to "binge"-read a favorite author. It works in this genre--mysteries, like romances, are often scooped up on the last day of used book sales by buyers filling boxes or bags for a few dollars without regard to the author or title--and with this author because at around 200 or fewer pages three Christie stories fit nicely in a carryable package. And with these two editions now 50+ years old, the dry and slightly yellowed pages seemed just the right medium to deliver murder in triplicate.
This book club edition combines three Agatha Christie mysteries united on the setting of events in transit by train and plane. The anonymity of a solo passenger--isolated by their very immersion in a crowd of fellow anonymous solo passengers--is an enabling theme in these stories. Two of the three are Hercule Poirot, all bluster and ego and indirection and mustaches so ably played by Kenneth Branagh, and the third is a Miss Marple, with her quiet direct logic.
What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw was a murder glanced through the window of her train and the window of a train running in the same direction on a parallel track. When the two window were in sync for a few brief seconds stunned the elderly Mrs., who promptly reported it to the steward in her car, a policeman at the station where both cars where slowing to arrive, and to her friend Miss Marple, who then took the witness to retell the story to yet another policeman familiar with Miss Marple's calm detecting skills. But when there was no news about the apparent murder in the press and no dead body reported found on a train, the two ladies hatched a plan to investigate the case on their own to help convince the police that the event had actually happened.
Of the six Christie mysteries I have just read (the first three in Make Mine Murder, another book club three-in-one edition) Death in the Air was the only one I guessed the right suspect for the murder based on a seemingly insignificant detail very early in the story. When a passenger was murdered in a Paris-to-Croyden flight by a poisoned dart in a cabin with only ten other passengers and two stewards, it seemed at first impossible that it happened, impossible that the murderer got away with it, and then impossible to solve. Fortunately for the police on both sides of the Channel, Hercule was one of the passengers and in fact an early suspect, and while I guessed right almost from the start, the dame of mysteries had me questioning my guess until Poirot unveiled the mystery in the last few pages.
The Mystery of the Blue Train was perhaps the least intriguing of the six, and, originally published in 1928, the oldest of the six, perhaps a testament to the growth of Christie as a writer. Blue Train was also the longest by a few pages and seemed to have more descriptions and less dialogue than the others, telling the story of a murder of an unhappy British wife on a continental train by a suspect or suspects not even supposed to be on board. In all three stories money was a motive, and family members (some near in relation, age, and geography, some distant in all three characteristics) were suspects. As I read these three stories and tried to work through the logic to solve the mysteries, I was reminded that real life crimes like murder are usually not logical but highly emotional and logically messy.
Both of these omnibus editions were published for book clubs, which in the Age of the e-book, audio book, and social media seem like a far-distant historical anomaly, much like record clubs that let you select 12 albums for a penny as long as you promised to buy one per month at full price over the next two years. It is interesting that both were on the shelf of my local public library, waiting I suppose for readers like me who wants to "binge"-read a favorite author. It works in this genre--mysteries, like romances, are often scooped up on the last day of used book sales by buyers filling boxes or bags for a few dollars without regard to the author or title--and with this author because at around 200 or fewer pages three Christie stories fit nicely in a carryable package. And with these two editions now 50+ years old, the dry and slightly yellowed pages seemed just the right medium to deliver murder in triplicate.
September 27, 2024
THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN
Dalam novel The Mystery of the Blue Train karya Agatha Christie, saya disuguhkan dengan gambaran masyarakat yang penuh intrik dan kemunafikan. Karakter-karakter yang diciptakan Christie, meski tampak mengesankan, sering kali mencerminkan stereotip yang konyol dan berlebihan. Misalnya, Boris Krassnine, si "raja tikus" yang berupaya keras untuk terlihat berkuasa, justru membuat saya tidak bisa menahan tawa ketika ia tampak begitu cemas dan rendahan di tengah situasi berbahaya.
Kehidupan malam Paris yang glamor digambarkan dengan nuansa yang sangat dramatis—seolah-olah setiap sudut kota ini adalah latar belakang untuk pertunjukan teater yang berlebihan. Para penjahat yang berlagak "tough" sering kali berperilaku lebih mirip karakter kartun daripada sosok berbahaya. Ketika mereka berusaha menakut-nakuti, justru yang terlihat adalah kebodohan mereka sendiri, seakan-akan mereka baru saja keluar dari film komedi.
Olga Demiroff, si femme fatale, tampak seperti kombinasi antara wanita kuat dan objek penggoda, menciptakan dinamika yang sekaligus menarik dan konyol. Dialog-dialog yang menggugah ini sering kali berisi sindiran tajam, seakan-akan Christie ingin mengatakan bahwa di balik topeng keanggunan, terdapat banyak kebohongan dan kepura-puraan.
Melalui kisah ini, Christie tidak hanya menyajikan teka-teki yang menantang, tetapi juga mengajak saya tertawa atas absurditas yang ada dalam karakter dan situasi. Dengan gaya satir yang halus, novel ini menjadi cermin bagi saya untuk memandang realitas dengan sedikit lebih kritis, bahkan dalam keseriusan yang tampaknya ada. Seolah-olah, di dunia yang diciptakan Christie, semua orang adalah aktor dalam sandiwara yang tidak pernah berakhir, di mana penipuan dan ketidakpastian adalah bumbu utama dari kehidupan sehari-hari.
Dalam novel The Mystery of the Blue Train karya Agatha Christie, saya disuguhkan dengan gambaran masyarakat yang penuh intrik dan kemunafikan. Karakter-karakter yang diciptakan Christie, meski tampak mengesankan, sering kali mencerminkan stereotip yang konyol dan berlebihan. Misalnya, Boris Krassnine, si "raja tikus" yang berupaya keras untuk terlihat berkuasa, justru membuat saya tidak bisa menahan tawa ketika ia tampak begitu cemas dan rendahan di tengah situasi berbahaya.
Kehidupan malam Paris yang glamor digambarkan dengan nuansa yang sangat dramatis—seolah-olah setiap sudut kota ini adalah latar belakang untuk pertunjukan teater yang berlebihan. Para penjahat yang berlagak "tough" sering kali berperilaku lebih mirip karakter kartun daripada sosok berbahaya. Ketika mereka berusaha menakut-nakuti, justru yang terlihat adalah kebodohan mereka sendiri, seakan-akan mereka baru saja keluar dari film komedi.
Olga Demiroff, si femme fatale, tampak seperti kombinasi antara wanita kuat dan objek penggoda, menciptakan dinamika yang sekaligus menarik dan konyol. Dialog-dialog yang menggugah ini sering kali berisi sindiran tajam, seakan-akan Christie ingin mengatakan bahwa di balik topeng keanggunan, terdapat banyak kebohongan dan kepura-puraan.
Melalui kisah ini, Christie tidak hanya menyajikan teka-teki yang menantang, tetapi juga mengajak saya tertawa atas absurditas yang ada dalam karakter dan situasi. Dengan gaya satir yang halus, novel ini menjadi cermin bagi saya untuk memandang realitas dengan sedikit lebih kritis, bahkan dalam keseriusan yang tampaknya ada. Seolah-olah, di dunia yang diciptakan Christie, semua orang adalah aktor dalam sandiwara yang tidak pernah berakhir, di mana penipuan dan ketidakpastian adalah bumbu utama dari kehidupan sehari-hari.
May 21, 2019
I have read this particular collection, years ago, but this review, at this time, is for The Mystery of the Blue Train.
The Blue Train is a luxury that I am sure doesn't really exist these days, but I have that romantic view of Agatha's Europe forever instilled in my head from reading her books from my youth and on into my middle age.
However, I would hate to have a murder committed on a train that I found myself passenger on!
As always, Agatha Christie creates a glorious setting, wonderfully developed characters, and an engaging story that will keep you turning each page, wondering if you will keep pace with Hercule Poirot and his investigations. (You most likely won't!)
The Blue Train is a luxury that I am sure doesn't really exist these days, but I have that romantic view of Agatha's Europe forever instilled in my head from reading her books from my youth and on into my middle age.
However, I would hate to have a murder committed on a train that I found myself passenger on!
As always, Agatha Christie creates a glorious setting, wonderfully developed characters, and an engaging story that will keep you turning each page, wondering if you will keep pace with Hercule Poirot and his investigations. (You most likely won't!)
November 23, 2025
Another great collection completed. Trains, trains, and airplanes! These are all fun reads. I read
June 2022 #9/#6 Poirot 1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train
November 2025 #62/#7 Miss Jane Marple 1957 4:50 from Paddington US What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw
March 2023 #24/#10 Hercule Poirot 1935 Death in the Clouds US Death in the Air
June 2022 #9/#6 Poirot 1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train
November 2025 #62/#7 Miss Jane Marple 1957 4:50 from Paddington US What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw
March 2023 #24/#10 Hercule Poirot 1935 Death in the Clouds US Death in the Air
December 15, 2018
I read only Death in the Air for which there is no separate listing, and my copy will not scan. It is quite the tale with Hercule Poirot coming through and explaining all the twists and turns at the end. This book had more than the normal and was very interesting and convoluted.
June 18, 2025
overall a really good mystery. The murderers come out of left field and are unexpected. The mystery itself gets swamped by the love story regarding Katherine Gray but picks back up finally towards the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2025
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie.
This book was a slow start for me, but it did not disappoint.
It kept me guessing, and I did not see the end coming at all. I was convinced the murderer was someone else.
This one was a very good read.
This book was a slow start for me, but it did not disappoint.
It kept me guessing, and I did not see the end coming at all. I was convinced the murderer was someone else.
This one was a very good read.
May 8, 2019
A surprising ending and has good characters in it.
November 10, 2019
Liked it quite a lot. Good one.
November 25, 2019
what mrs. mcgillicuddy saw was my first agatha christie novel. every page had me guessing and reanalyzing, i loved it
January 28, 2020
I didn't guess the murderer. It was a great mystery.
May 18, 2021
Interesting..unexpected end..
January 4, 2022
I loved the book, loved the characters. Definitely one of my favorite books.
January 6, 2022
She is the best.
January 19, 2022
Although the endings showing how and by whom the murders were done were somewhat unrealistic, I thoroughly enjoyed all three books.
Read
February 11, 2023Audiobook
September 16, 2023
LO ADIVINE
October 9, 2023
The pacing and story telling is amazing. All three stories were the perfect length
April 2, 2024
Poirot at his best.
August 21, 2025
I really like this book! I thought it was well written and very witty.
December 5, 2025
Three great Agatha Christie short novels written in her usual amazing way. She's great at setting the scene with character descriptions that give hints as to the murder.
October 31, 2018
3/5
I love reading Agatha Christie books, and this was the perfect compilation to bring on my 5-week trip to the cousins. They're all relatively fast reads, and Hercule Poirot is much more down-to-earth and relatable than Sherlock Holmes. Humorously, I read Death in the Air while flying in an aeroplane. Funny, but it nearly gave my lovely aunt a heart-attack.
I wrote this review several months after finishing it, so I can't say I'm totally qualified to write a review on each individual book, so I won't try to. All you need to know is this: Agatha Christie is probably a genius, and her books have opened the door to mystery for me and for that, I'll always be grateful.
I love reading Agatha Christie books, and this was the perfect compilation to bring on my 5-week trip to the cousins. They're all relatively fast reads, and Hercule Poirot is much more down-to-earth and relatable than Sherlock Holmes. Humorously, I read Death in the Air while flying in an aeroplane. Funny, but it nearly gave my lovely aunt a heart-attack.
I wrote this review several months after finishing it, so I can't say I'm totally qualified to write a review on each individual book, so I won't try to. All you need to know is this: Agatha Christie is probably a genius, and her books have opened the door to mystery for me and for that, I'll always be grateful.
July 17, 2012
An excellent work. This is actually three stories in one: The Mystery of the Blue Train, What Mrs. McGillicuddy saw, and Death in the Air. Two Poirot and one Marple. I throughly enjoyed all three and would highly recommend this book
June 5, 2011
Just read "What Mrs. M. Saw" and it was ok.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews