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    The Woman on the Orient Express
    The Woman on the Orient Express
    The Woman on the Orient Express
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Woman on the Orient Express

    Written by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    Narrated by Justine Eyre

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey.

    Agatha isn’t the only passenger on board with secrets. Her cabinmate Katharine Keeling’s first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit. Nancy Nelson—newly married but carrying another man’s child—is desperate to conceal the pregnancy and teeters on the brink of utter despair. Each woman hides her past from the others, ferociously guarding her secrets. But as the train bound for the Middle East speeds down the track, the parallel courses of their lives shift to intersect—with lasting repercussions.

    Filled with evocative imagery, suspense, and emotional complexity, The Woman on the Orient Express explores the bonds of sisterhood forged by shared pain and the power of secrets.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 20, 2016
    ISBN9781531830564
    The Woman on the Orient Express
    Author

    Lindsay Jayne Ashford

    Lindsay Jayne Ashford is a former BBC journalist and the first woman to graduate from Queens’ College Cambridge with a master’s degree in criminology. Originally from Wolverhampton, she now lives on the west Wales coast. She is the author of the Megan Rhys crime novels Frozen and Strange Blood.

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    Reviews for The Woman on the Orient Express

    4/5

    152 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent reading, quite a good book with a few twists that I did not see coming at all!
    • 4/5
      Its an interesting story based on elements of Agatha Christie's life. The writing is very good. The author does an excellent job of capturing the language of the time in both the dialog and prose. There are times where the story does drag a bit, but these are usually punctuated by some major event.
    • 4/5
      In 1929, the lives of three desperately unhappy women (one of them Agatha Christie), each with a burdensome secret, converge on the on the Orient Express... As they arrive in Baghdad their stories unfurl further and a friendship forms, eventually bringing each woman peace in its own manner.A fictionalized account of how Christie met her husband Max Mallowan that I found to be a well written compelling read that had me engrossed from the very beginning.
    • 5/5
      I was a bit leary about Woman on the Orient Express. The title seemed too contrived in its association. The words woman and Orient Express can only lead to Agatha Christie. And, indeed, the historical novel is based on an episode in Christie’s life. In the autumn of 1928, after her divorce became final, Christie boarded the train, and met Katherine Keeling, later Kathrine Woolley, who invited Christie to the archeological dig at Ur. Both women are running away from an unpleasant past featuring a failed marriage. Both women have secrets.Once again, Ashford deftly draws her characters and locations. Agatha Christie is known for her mystery novels. Christie drew on Katherine Woolley as the murder victim in Murder in Mesopotamia. But Woolley was more than a character inspiration. She illustrated the objects catalog for the Ur excavations and assisted in the reconstruction of objects recovered from the site. I liked Woman on the Orient Express more than I thought I would, both for revealing more about Agatha Christie’s early life, and introducing me to Katherine Woolley.
    • 4/5
      Contrary to what you might infer from the title, this book is not a mystery. Agatha Christie is the main character in the novel, a fictionalized account of her journey to the Middle East via the Orient Express. There were enough real people and events in the story to pique my curiosity about them and Agatha's life, and I was on google several times learning more. The story focused on the relationship between three women, each of whom have had a recent brutal failing in love. I enjoyed the setting, and found the story intriguing.
    • 4/5
      In 1928, Agatha Christie took a trip on the Orient Express under an assumed name, escaping the news coverage of her divorce from Archie Christie. On the train, she meets two other women, Katherine Keeling and Ann Nelson, each of whom also has a secret.

      The women do not immediately trust each other. Ann is fleeing her husband, and was expecting her lover to join her. Katherine, working for the British Museum as an archaeological artist, is on her way to marry Leonard Woolley, head of the expedition to Ur. She's a widow burdened with a secret from her first marriage, which profoundly affects this new one, and she wants to avoid the whole subject. Agatha wants no one to know who she is, so she can avoid questions about her divorce, as Archie's wedding to the woman he left her for approaches.

      Ann and Agatha's situations seem enough like the flip side of each other that Agatha wonders at first if Ann is indeed Archie's lover, though she quickly realizes that's impossible.

      Despite the secrets and stresses, though, on the trip to Baghdad the women bond and come to rely on each other. This continues after they reach Baghdad, and then the dig at Ur, which Katherine invites them to visit, even when all their secrets start to come to a head. It's a story about the interplay of the characters more than about plot, and it's a wonderful evocation of time, place, and character.

      Recommended.

      I bought this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      This was an interesting fictional look into Agatha Christie's life. I enjoyed this story - it read a lot quicker than I thought it would. I recommend this book, especially if you like Agatha Christie's books.
    • 3/5
      Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced digital copy of this book. The stage is set on the Orient Express where the reader is introduced to three women, each trying to hide a dark part of their lives. Katherine is aware of her beauty and manages to control anyone venturing into her web. Nancy is so lost and unsure you can't help but pity her and yet you wonder if she deserves much sympathy. Agatha is the perfect foil to move the story and history along. While these women may seem very different their entanglements seem all too familiar. They are kindred spirits in their emotional morass.

      The story provided an interesting look at the reality of bright, talented women in the early twentieth century. The portion of the book set in the Middle East managed to evoke the smells, colors and tastes of the area. The history, while interesting, felt as if it had been told often. It was enjoyable book and I would look to read this author again.
    • 4/5
      The book began as most all romance novels do, introducing the characters, letting the reader know who were the good guys, who the bad, with one or two questionable types. But midway through, the plots all changed. It became a much different novel than I had expected. I quite enjoyed it from that point onward.
    • 4/5
      I did not have high expectations for this book, as it was provided free as part of the Amazon Unlimited program. However, it was one of my favorite kinds of books that effortlessly combines adventure, romance and a bit of mystery with just enough basis in real life to be thoroughly interesting. This book brought to life the figure of Agatha Christie as a real person, with a unique life story, and as a result has caused me to add all of her books (shamefully late) to my list of books to be read. Would recommend to anyone who likes historical fiction.
    • 3/5
      I have always been a huge fan of Agatha Christie and always wondered about her famous disappearance that has never been fully explained or resolved to this day. Lindsay Jayne Ashford has taken on this question in a fictionalized account that is both interesting and entertaining.Agatha Christie is at a crossroad in her life. Her marriage is over and she needs a fresh start; not to mention a break from everything to find herself again. She decides to take a trip on the Orient Express but little does she know that she is not the only woman with secrets on the train.I enjoyed Agatha Christie's character so much. She was so complex and I could understand her frame of mind and the reasons why she did what she did. I found the other main characters not quite as developed but that was fine as Agatha is the main character in the story and they seemed to be more in a supporting role to the main story. All in all, I found myself immersed in the book and really liked how the ending came together.I received a copy of this book from the publishers (via Netgalley) for free in exchange for a honest review.
    • 4/5
      This is a charming fictional account of how Agatha Christie become acquainted with the Middle East and the archaeological digs that fascinated the western world during this period. Agatha's ex-husband is remarrying, and she cannot bear to read all of the details in the paper and be the focus of pity. She boards the Orient Express to explore Egypt and the Middle East. Traveling incognito to avoid the press, en route she meets two women with secrets of their own to hide and one interesting younger man. This is an atmospheric mystery with interesting characters, intriguing settings, and a satisfying plot.
    • 5/5
      Lindsay Ashford's skill as a writer is remarkable. It's not often I get to read a good yarn and notice and appreciate the construction of the book as well. As a fictional biography covering the months Agatha Christie spent in Mesopotamia following her divorce from Archie Christie in the late 20s, the reader spends five days traveling aboard the Orient Express and getting to know the two other female travel companions who will dominate Agatha's life in the coming weeks in Baghdad and at the Woolsey expedition excavating Ur in the Arabian desert.Ashford fluidly injects the elements of foreshadowing naturally in the flow of plot, requiring the reader's attention as even small snippets of conversation, instance, and action are important at the climax of the story. Her technique in doing so is admirable. While the book is framed, or "bookended" rather than chronological from first to last -- a device employed in movies and to me annoying in books -- the bulk of the novel is told in straightforward and tightly paced events.Readers expecting an Agatha Christie novel may be disappointed in spite of the "appearance" of Hercule Poirot. But readers wanting an intelligent and involving story about a fascinating real-life personality will not be. With the exception of very few characters, all are fictionalized versions of real people whose characters are portrayed in verisimilitude to their actual persona. Period detail is pitch perfect and Ashford performs nary a slip in rendering dialogue in keeping with it. I felt like an invisible traveler who, like the fly on the wall, lived through each person's point of view throughout. The Woman on the Orient Express need not be a "great" novel to be the great read that it is.
    • 4/5
      I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.Feeling broken after her divorce, Agatha Christie rides the Orient Express in hopes of finding herself again on the journey. Along the way, she befriends two other female travelers, and their lives intersect in powerful ways they could never have imagined.I love that this is a fictionalized take on what is known about Agatha Christie's life. Agatha is a powerful and fascinating person in her own right, and Ashford does a good job of expanding a story around her.At some points, the story seemed to move a little slow. I liked this book, but because of the slower moving sections, I'm not sure I would have stuck with it if it if the main character hadn't been my favorite author of all-time.This is a good book, not one of my favorites, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It was fun to read a fictional book centered around Agatha Christie's life.
    • 4/5
      When I first started reading this book, I thought that it was going to be a story of a murder mystery onboard the Orient Express. However, this is instead a story of three women and the secrets they keep. Using both fact and fiction, the author has created a detailed story portraying a painful part of Agatha Christie's life. It deals with the time after Agatha's mysterious disappearance and then painful divorce from her husband Archie.Agatha travels to Bagdad via the Orient Express. On the train, she meets two women who will become friends to Agatha. Katherine is an archaeologist on her way to join her excavation team. Nancy is distraught over her lover's treatment and is escaping to her aunt, who is also in the same area.What transpires is a wonderfully written story. I received a complimentary ebook from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      Mysteries beyond the Orient Express! Enthralling!Set in 1928, the story opens later years with Agatha Christie, now a grandmother, being visited by a young man. He has with him a photograph of Agatha and two other women. One is his mother. He wants to know more about them, and in doing so, find out more about himself. He is convinced there is a mystery surrounding them that affects him. Agatha shares their story.Meshing together fact and fiction Ashford has crafted a wonderful story depicting a painful part of Agatha Christie's life. This rather haunting and beautifully wrought story deals with the time after Agatha's mysterious disappearance and subsequent painful divorce from her husband Archie.Agatha travels to Bagdad via the Orient Express. It is on this trip that she meets two woman who will become important friends. Katherine is an archaeologist on her way to a dig in Ur. Nancy is a young woman, confused because of her lover's treatment. She is on her way to spend time with her cousin in Bagdad.Ashford brings to life Agatha's journey, the exoticness of the sights and smells of the bazaars, the desert and the dig at Ur. The interplay between the three women is fascinating.On this trip a very real life drama unfolds before Agatha's eyes, that transcends the fiction of her novels. I love the voice of Hercules Poroit occasionally popping into Agatha's head. Directing her. He is like her inner self pointing the way.A fascinating look into the life and legend that was Agatha Christie told compellingly in the first person cleverly blending fact and fiction. A NetGalley ARC