Orient Express

Yesterday, I watched this documentary with David Suchet about the Orient Express. It is now of course most famous for Murder on the Orient Express. Fleming also used the Orient Express brilliantly in From Russia With Love. As a child, I used to be a fan of Agatha Christie, but strangely I never read this novel, although I saw one of the movies adaptations. And I really enjoyed the Muppets parody. Anyway, even though I never read the novel, as trains fascinate me since childhood, I have been fascinated by the Orient Express as an icon. I was not the only one: my dad always regretted not buying the LGB Orient Express wagon. He still told me about it in his last visit, while my mum was rolling her eyes.

I am not into Agatha Christie and whodunits anymore. For me, the best crime novel I read that was set in a train was La maldonne des sleepings of Tonino Benacquista. It was in a much less glamorous train than the Orient Express, but it is fast paced, suspenseful, full of character(s) and you can even see Venice. But I do find the glamour of the Orient Express appealing. It is almost a shame that it is now associated with a whodunit (I really grew out of those as you can see). I mean, trains can be great settings for adventure/crime stories: they have character, they can create feelings of both motion and claustrophobia, random meetings among the travellers can lead to drama, even tragedy, danger hides beneath the veneer of civility and civilisation (case in point). The Orient Express emphasises this, its glamour barely hiding how feral humans can be.