The Mystery of the Blue Train

The Blue Train is one of the most glamorous crime scenes in the Christie catalogue. Poirot finds himself aboard the famous service running between Calais and Nice, and somewhere along the line an American heiress is brutally murdered and a fabulous ruby goes missing. Murder and theft on a train full of passengers who all claim to have seen nothing is the kind of problem Poirot was built for. The journey itself is the trap, and there is no getting off until the questions are answered.

But the carriage becomes a moving cage, and the suspects are the other passengers: Derek Kettering, who had his reasons; Lenox Tamplin; Major Richard Knighton; Ada Mason, the dead woman's maid; Corky Evans; La Roche; Sister Rosalia; and the stewards gliding past with their trays. Ada Mason hovers at the edge of the investigation with her own secrets, and the dead woman's acquaintances all seem to be travelling with at least one lie. Everyone is too close, and nobody saw anything. Poirot's deductions have to work like a train timetable, minute by minute, and the luxury around him only makes the violence harder to take. The corridor is a stage, and everyone on it is lying a little.

James D'Arcy plays Derek Kettering, with Alice Eve as Lenox Tamplin, Nicholas Farrell as Major Richard Knighton, Bronagh Gallagher as Ada Mason, Tom Harper as Corky Evans, Oliver Milburn as La Roche, Helen Lindsay as Sister Rosalia, Samuel James as one of the stewards and Jane How as a lady at a ball. Agatha Christie wrote it with Guy Andrews, and Hettie Macdonald directed. David Suchet is Poirot.

The real service ran from Calais down toward the Riviera, all sleepers and silver, and it is easy to see why Christie kept coming back to trains. This adaptation leans into the romance of the journey and lets the mystery ride along. The setting does half the work, and the cast does the rest. The result is a handsome, old-fashioned puzzle with some genuinely dark corners.