The book has a few good elements: indeed the characters are intriguing, and a dynamic, very 1920s Poirot dominates the proceedings, but things don’t really come together. On a train bound for the French Riviera, Poirot meets a young heiress, and becomes embroiled in a tragic murder case.Ĭhristie herself admitted that she only cobbled this one together to make some money during a difficult time, so I don’t feel too bad about disliking 'The Mystery of the Blue Train'. and there are the mysterious shadowers of the rubies.īetween a thoughtful & astute Miss Grey and Monsieur Poirot Ruth's murderer is caught and the rubies discretely go on to their next owner. Just outside Gare de Lyon, Ruth is found in her compartment strangled to death with a bashed in face.

Ruth's gigolo, her husband, her husband's discarded mistress are also on the train. In a moment of blue funk, Ruth befriends Katherine and unburdens herself. Lady Ruth is carrying the Former Tsarina's rubies and many people are very aware of that fact. Lady Ruth Kettering (an American Heiress) is about to divorce her husband (at the behest of her father) and meet her gigolo of a lover in Nice, she too is aboard the Blue Train. Mary Mead (No Marple) and is bound for Nice on The Blue Train to visit her money hungry cousin. Katherine Grey, the enigmatic young woman of the memorable eyes, has left her post of caregiver (the old woman died leaving Katherine well off) in St.

Poirot mystery of the blue train