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4/5 = Liked it.
Reasonably solid, typical Poirot novel. A wealthy woman is murdered on a train voyage, with limited suspects who cut across the fabric of social life in the mid-war period. Poirot is roped in, we follow his unorthodox investigation, before the murderer is finally uncovered towards the end. All in all, pretty standard fare.
As Poirot mysteries go, I think this is reasonably middle-of-the-pack. The characterisation was strong - I particularly enjoyed Katherine Grey, the sympathetic companion who has recently come into a large sum of money. Her exposure to the self-absorbed financial class she suddenly finds herself ensconced with provides the novel with a clear conduit for social commentary, while still providing Katherine enough personality and agency to feel like a fully-fledged actor in the novel.
However, the start of this novel was very weak, following a trite and melodramatic jewel sale, and the novel simply takes too long getting to the actual mystery. Christie is a solid writer of what she does well (mysteries and minor social commentary) and a weak writer at literally anything else. The further her books stray from these core pillars, the weaker they become - and this introduction is a particularly weak example.
Additionally, the resolution of the novel left me wanting. While it was not logistically impossible for a reader to solve it, the novel keeps enough clues away from us that by the time Poirot reveals the real answer I did feel like I had been hampered. It's not true to say that the only fun from a Christie comes from the resolution - they are too fun for that to be ever true - but there is a joy in trying to guess the murderer before Poirot, and I think this novel hides enough from the reader to preclude that possibility.
Nonetheless, a solid read.
