A known crime fiction novel by millions, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express is not only intriguing, but initially a thrilling ride that keeps readers in tune and guessing up until the very last page (no pun intended on the "thrilling ride" comment). With the infamous protagonist Hercule Poirot taking charge on leading the investigation, the entire plot was based around a single man being murdered by a suspect (or suspects) on a train traveling throughout Europe. It was interesting being introduced to Hercule Poirot for the first time reading this, considering I've never read any Agatha Christie crime novels before. I find the steps that Poirot takes when solving a crime very strategical and can be recognized as a specific method used initially by him and him alone. This novel is structured into 3 parts: The Facts, The Evidence, and Hercule Poirot Sits Back and Thinks. I feel a majority of people are intimidated by the intellect a detective can hold when solving a crime and in today's society it might even seem foreign. These books were written in another time period, however, and display an intellectual detective who not only works with evidence and confessions, but intuition as well. The entire story revolves roughly around a dozen people who are suspects of the crime and Poirot weaves through each of them, taking into consideration their status, character, and background. As a reader, I was simply moving through the chapters attempting to guess at who Poirot suspected would be the culprit, but I was completely taken aback by the ending of the novel. I believe Poirot is not only an extraordinary detective, but a fair human being as well and that is displayed by the ending of this novel. I won't give away any spoilers, but it was a plot twist that slowly developed and came at me all at once. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in crime fiction--considering Agatha Christie has been outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, it is apparent that anyone and everyone should give her books a read.
Fredrik Backman's Anxious People is a 2019 publication, translated into English in 2021. This novel was nothing I had expected it to be based on the synopsis of a desperate individual who turned to robbing a bank in order to overcome current life circumstances. The novel follows a number of characters and their current livelihoods; individuals "held up" as hostages in the middle of an apartment showing which took place before the New Year holiday. I was impressed with the attention to detail Backman was able to portray, not necessarily in backdrops of locations but between the different characters' thoughts/lifestyles throughout the piece. What I expected of an individual in the beginning was not relatable to what was uncovered/divulged to the reader towards the middle/end of the novel. This novel did follow the actions of a woman (not identified gender-wise until late into the novel) who chose to rob a bank in order to retrieve financial means t...
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