Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - The Mystery of the Blue Train

Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

8 reviews

daryn's review against another edition

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informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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phantomgecko's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Took a long time to get to the murder.

Agatha Christie writes characters that are easy for me to get behind. Obvs, Poirot is superb, but the one time characters unique to each book are also easy to sympathize with.

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thequeeraunt's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is the point at which I would recommend readers begin the Hercule Poirot mysteries. Not to disparage Christie's earlier Poirot novels, but they are a very different reading experience. The Mystery of the Blue Train is the first of the Poirot novels that is told in a third-person point-of-view, which is a much more familiar narrative structure to modern readers than the previous second-person stories.

While the racism isn't as prevalent in this novel as in some of the previous ones (looking at you, The Big Four), there is still language and some characterizations which are less-than-savory to modern sensibilities. If you can get past the 1920's-era casual racism and misogyny, The Mystery of the Blue Train is a fairly well-plotted whodunit with a surprising reveal.

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