She altered names, added international jewel dealers, plenty of extra characters, and a more complicated plot. She reused the plot of “The Plymouth Express,” a short story she’d written several years before. That’s not to say she didn’t take a shortcut. Now, she supported her household by herself. Previously, despite the other novels and innumerable short stories, she could tell herself she was a wife who wrote. What made the difference? Having to earn her living. She could produce a coherent novel despite being over-stressed, uninspired, and unwilling to write a word. In her autobiography, Agatha wrote that Blue Train was the book that proved to her that she was a professional writer. She was divorced, had a child to support, contractual obligations, and she needed the money. She didn’t want to write anything but she didn’t have a choice. She was still recovering from the death of her mother, the fallout from her eleven-day disappearance, and the collapse of her marriage. Why did she disparage her eighth novel? Because she wrote it under extreme duress. She thought less of readers who gushed that it was their favorite Christie. For a vicious murder, it’s bright, bubbly, effervescent, and at times, silly and funny.Īgatha disliked The Mystery of the Blue Train. Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.Īlso, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movies on her podcast.Īdd attempted murder and jewel theft, along with mysterious nuns, creative backstories, and personality transplants. Teresa reviews “The Mystery of the Blue Train” (2006) and wants a buy a ticket for the next trip to Nice, in the non-murdering section.

The murder on the blue train