Article archive / December 2017
Originally published: . Volume 8, No. 12. Source pages: 15.
The Woman on the Orient Express by Jayne Ashford
Kim E. VanGeffen, PhD Neuropsychologist, New Orleans LPA Director and Past President 2015 Distinguished Psychologist
Just in time to see the remake of the movie Murder on the Orient Express, I have finished reading The Woman on the Orient Express. This book is part fiction, part nonfiction and recounts the first trip which Agatha Christie took on the Orient Express. This exciting train trip took Christie to Baghdad where she visited an archaeological site and where she met her second husband, Max Mallowan. Mallowan was an archaeologist working at the site. This trip was to be the first of several trips which Christie took on the train. Her later travels on the Orient Express were to be with her new husband and to participate in archaeological excavations with him. In Ashford's book, Christie has decided to take a trip on the Orient Express in order to be away from London during the time when her first husband was to marry the woman with whom he was having and affair and for whom he left Christie. Christie's trips on the Orient Express served as the inspiration for her novel Murder on the Orient Express which featured her famous detective, Hercule Poirot. The book was first released in America with the title Murder in the Calais Coach. Christie's trips on the Orient Express and to Baghdad also inspired several of her other books such as Murder in Mesopotamia and They Came to Baghdad.
Ashford's novel, written in the style of Agatha Christie, recounts the stories of Christie and two other women whom she meets on the train and in whose lives she becomes involved. At first, Christie is traveling incognito as she was a famous writer at this time; however, all three women have secrets which are ultimately revealed as the women become friends. Although the women's secrets form the basis of this book, it is not so much a mystery (and there are no murders) but a biography of Agatha Christie.
Now I am set to start reading Christmas Cozy Mysteries. As I have written in this column before, Cozy Mysteries are typically set in a small picturesque town with characters whom you could envision having as neighbors or friends. It is a hard choice but I think that I will start with Joanne Fluke's Christmas Caramel Murder which features bake shop owner Hannah Swensen as she stumbles into yet another murder mystery in her small town in Minnesota. For Agatha Christie fans, she has several holiday themed mysteries including Hercule Poirot's Christmas, A Christmas Tragedy and The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding.
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