Murder on the Orient Express

Characters:
Hercule Poirot - Belgian detective
Lanfranco Casetti , alias Samuel Edward Ratchett - the
killer of Daisy Armstrong; he was killed on the train
Hector Willard MacQueen - Casetti's secretary
Edward Henry Masterman - Casetti's valet
Linda Arden , alias Caroline Martha Hubbord - the most
famous actress of the New York stage ; Daisy Armstrong's
grandmother
Pierre Michel - the train conductor
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff - Sonia Armstrong's
grandmother
Miss Greta Ohlsson - a Swedish missionary; she was Daisy
Armstrong's nurse
Miss mary Debenham - was Sonia Armstrong's secretary
and Daisy Armstrong's governess
Countess Andrenyi Helena - was Sonia Armstrong's sister
Count Andrenyi - was Helena Andrenyi's husband
Fraulein Hildegrade Schmidt - Princess Dragomiroff's maid
Antonio Foscarelli - a car sales man; he was the Armstrong
family's chauffeur
Cyrus Hardman - a private detective
Dr. Constantin - Greek doctor
Xavier Bouc - Poirot's friend
John Arbuthnot - Mary Debenham's love
Plot:
"Murder on the Orient Express" is a detective novel written
by Agatha Christie.All the action of this novel was happening on
a train, named "Simplon Orient Express". Hercule Poirot, the
famous murder detective boards the Orient Express to Istanbul.
He observed that the car, where the people could sleep, was
unusually crowded. In the first night, Poirot met a man called
Ratchett. Ratchett told Poirot that he received some
threathening letters and asked him to help finding out who sent

those letters, but Poirot declined Ratchett's offer because he

didn't like his face. Ratchett was afraid that someone is going
to kill him.
That night Poirot woke up to the sound of scream. He
realised that it came from the nearest compartiment which was
occupied by Mr. Ratchett. Poirot went back to bed, but he
couldn't sleep. When Poirot rang the conductor for mineral
water he heard that Mrs. Hubbord told that someone was in her
compartiment. In this time the train stopped because of a large
snowdrift.
The next day Poirot found out that Ratchett was murdered.
He has been stabbed 12 times while he was sleeping.Bouc told
Poirot to take the case, because he is so experienced in this.
Poirot started to search clues in Ratchett's compartiment.
He found a small pocket watch broken and stopped at 1:15am,
a woman's handkerchief with an "H" on it, a pipe cleaner and a
button from the conductor's uniform. All of these clues show
that there were more murderers.
Poirot reconstructed parts of a burnt letter, so he found
out that Ratchett was from the United States and his real name
was Casetti. Five years earlier Casetti kidnapped the 3 year-old
American Daisy Armstrong. Even if the Armstrong family payde
a huge sum of money, Casetti killed the girl. Sonia Armstrong,
Daisy's mother was pregnant when she heard that Daisy was
murdered and she died, too.
Poirot discovered that everyone in the coach had a
connection with the Armstrong family and had a reason to kill
Ratchett. He proposes two possible solutions. The first solution
is that a stranger boarded the train and murdered him. The
second solution is that all 13 people in the coach were guilty.
Poirot concedes Countess Andrenyi did not take part in murder,
so there were 12 murderers, like the injuries in Ratchett's body.
The second solution is correct.