The Mystery of the Blue Train: A Hercule Poirot Murder Mystery by: Agatha Christie (1928) Part 1

Characters

Monsieur Le Marquis - man who wears a mask

Demetrius Papopolous - antique dealer

Zia Papopolous - daughter of Demetrius

Rufus Van Aldin - rich man

Major Richard Knighton - Van Aldin's secretary

Ruth Kettering - daughter of Rufus Van Aldin

Derek Kettering - Ruth's husband

Mirelle - dancer friend of Derek Kettering

Katherine Grey - acquired a new wealth

Viscountess Rosalie Tamplin - Well known in Riviera

The Honorable Lenox Tamplin - daughter of Rosalie Tamplin

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We are introduced to a very mysterious wealthy man on the streets at midnight. He works for the embassy but he is working on a business deal they are unaware of at this time. Going to go meet an American gentlemen and a Russian woman to purchase an item which has been hidden to prevent it being confiscated by the police. After inspecting the item to purchase, he pays them and is on his way. Once he leaves the Russian woamn points out a white haired man in the street that she had seen earlier.

The white hair man goes through the streets and knocks on Demetrius Papopolous door. The servant whom answers the door is not too thrilled that someone is calling on his master at this time of night. The man says that his name is Monsieur Le Marquis, and the servant lets him in the home to go speak to D. Papopolous. They discuss some business and M. Marquis is on his way. Zia is caught attempting to eavesdrop on her father's conversation with M. Marquis. She asks if they were talking about the rubies. And he tells her yes.

Mr. Rufus Van Aldin returns to the Savoy and meets with his secretary Mr. Knighton. They talk briefly about Van Aldin's time in Paris. Mr. Knighton tell him that Mrs. Kettering called yesterday wanting to talk with him urgently. Van Aldin has a gift for his daughter, and he plans on going to see her and give her the gift. Van Aldin calls on his daughter to see how she is doing. She is twenty eight years old, married to Derek. Ruth and her father discuss the fact that her husband has not been listening to her and she has not seen him in close to a month, and he has been seen with another woman. Van Aldin is very furious to hear that his son-in-law is treating his daughter this way. He reasons with her in plans of helping her get a divorce from Derek. After calming Ruth down, her father gives her the gift. The 'Heart of Fire' was one of the jewels in an arrangement of a piece of jewelry that he gives to her. She tells him that she is leaving on the fourteenth to go to the Riviera. Van Aldin decides to go and try to find Derek. Ruth suggested trying to go look for him in the club that he is usually at.

The next morning Van Aldin meets with Mr. Goby to discuss working on a divorce for his daughter. After Mr. Goby leaves, Mr. Knighton tells Van Aldin that his son-in-law Derek wishes to speak with him. He is very blunt with Derek and tells him that Ruth wants a divorce from him. Van Aldin believed that he only married her for her money. He does not like that answer from his father-in-law. Van Aldin warns him that he already know about Mirelle. Derek is pretty witty with remarking to him that he does not interfere with Ruth's friends, and maybe he does not know everything about his daughter. Van Aldin is very confused and upset by this. He leaves to go speak with his daughter. She plays coy with her father when he pushes her for information of the man she is seeing. But finally he figures out it was a man that he had driven away before Ruth had met Derek.

Derek goes to see Mirelle in her flat. They discuss the divorce and the 'Heart of Fire' and what would happen if Van Alden dies and how much Ruth would inherit afterwards. Mirelle tells Derek that she knows the man that Ruth is seeing, and knows of a way for Derek to make her relationship with that man to be public while she is on her trip to the Riviera.

Katherine Grey is given a letter in detail as to her inheritance after the death of Cousin Jane. This has made her quite wealthy with a small fortune. Rosalie Tamplin hears of this in the local paper, and discusses it with her daughter. She explains that they are technically related to Jane, and hope to write to Katherine and see about getting a small portion of the inheritance, only due to the fact that they were related, and they wanted a good deal of money to better themselves. Katherine receives their letter and is advised by Mrs. Harfield to ignore their attempt to collect money from her. The lawyer was not willing to look at their claim. Afterwards she decides to go into town and go to a dress shop. She had never been able to dress very nice before since she didn't have any money. She goes to a well known seamstress to look at some custom clothing to be fit to her.

Derek walks through town and goes to reserve a ticket on the fourteenth to travel on the blue train under the name of Pavett. After he was done with the clerk, the next person also requested a ticket for the fourteenth on the blue train, which Derek found to be very odd. He returns to his place and tells his man named Pavett to go in the morning to go a buy the ticket under his name. Pavett tells him there is a man there to visit him, Mr. Knighton. He comes to tell Derek that Van Aldin has made him an offer. If he does not defend himself in court, then he will be given a hundred thousand pounds. If he refused the offer Van Aldin would cause some serious damage to Derek. He tells Mr. Knighton to go tell his father-in-law that he rejected his offer, he is not going to be bought off that easy.

Christie has built up the perfect setting for a crime or murder to take place in this scenario. Between money, expensive jewels, marriage drama etc. Many things could happen between any of these options or even all of them. To be honest these first few chapters are not long but has a tendency to be dull. Between the long confusing names that are hard to pronounce and stereotype scenarios it may not be for everyone to sit and read. But what intrigues my interest is the great detail that she uses to describe these characters. Even though some we don't learn names until later, we already get a wonderful idea of what kind of person they are. We have barely dove into what the mystery on the blue train will entail. Further more, Hercule Poirot has not appeared, it will be quite interesting to see how Poirot is going to solve this case. In a way it is a good thing that nothing is revealed too soon. A way to keep the reader eager to read to more to see what will happen next.