Murder on the Orient Express
(Agatha Christie)

Agatha Christie was born in England in 1890 and was raised in an upper-middle class home. Christie was homeschooled, and the experiences of her younger days were often reflected in the novels she wrote as an adult. Christie always wanted to write a murder mystery, and asked her sister Madge to help though Madge decided not to, as it was out of her comfort zone.

The main character in Christie’s first novel, “The Mysterious Affair at the Styles”, was named Hercule Poirot and became a fixture in many of Christie’s subsequent novels including “Murder on the Orient Express.” In 1926 when Christie’s first husband, Archie, asked for a divorce she faked her own death/disappearance though she was soon found complaining of memory loss. In 1930, she married a paleontologist named Max Mallowan who took her on the travels that expanded her knowledge of places and things that would make appearances of her novels.

“Murder on the Orient Express” was favored by critics and was even made into a movie. Despite the fact that Christie did not often appreciate her books being made into movies, she did quite enjoy that one. For the most part, Christie wrote what she knew, and that was of people who were in the upper-middle class as she was raised. Throughout her life, she penned several novels until her death in 1976, five years after being named a Dame of the British Empire.