The great detective Hercule Poirot is a last-second passenger aboard the
Orient Express. On the journey, Poirot meets a very close friend Bouc, who works for the
Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits . The train is caught in heavy snows in the
Bals on the second night out from
Istanbul, and American millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is found stabbed to death the next morning. Poirot is especially intrigued because Ratchett had asked for Poirot's protection the previous day, fearing his life.
He was stabbed 12 times, some lightly but at least 3 that could have accomplished death. Some marks were right-handed and some left-handed. Since the train has been surrounded by fresh snow since before the apparent time of death, and the doors to the other cars were locked, it seems that the murderer must still be among the passengers in Ratchett's car. Poirot, Bouc, and Dr. Constantine (a passenger on another car), work together to solve the case. They are aided by Pierre Michel, the middle-aged French conductor of the car. A key to the solution is Ratchett's revealed involvement in the Armstrong tragedy in America several years earlier, in which a baby was kidnapped and then murdered. (The fictitious Armstrong case was apparently inspired by the
real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.)
The thirteen suspects are:
Hector McQueen, a tall, young
American man, the victim's secretary and translator.
Edward Henry Masterman, the victim's
British valet.
Pierre Michel, the French conductor of the Calais coach.
Mary Debenham, a tall, dark, young
British woman, working as a governess in
Baghdad.
Colonel Arbuthnot, a tall
British army officer returning from
India.
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, an elderly and very ugly
Russian grande dame.
Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged
German woman, the Princess lady's maid.
Count Rudolf Andrenyi, a tall, dark
Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France.
Countess Helena Andrenyi, neé Grünwald, his pale young wife.
Greta Ohlsson, a middle-aged blonde
Swedish missionary returning home for a vacation.
Mrs. Caroline Martha Hubbard, former Grünwald, neé Arden, a plump, elderly, very excitable
American woman returning from a visit to her daughter, a teacher in
Baghdad.
Antonio Foscarelli, a portly and exuberant
Italian businessman.
Cyrus Hardman (Dick), a large and gregarious Texan typewriter ribbon salesman.
