Before You Begin

Before you begin.

A fortune in rubies, a luxury express gliding through the night toward the Riviera, and a beautiful woman found dead in her compartment before dawn — The Mystery of the Blue Train is vintage Agatha Christie, all glamour and misdirection. Aboard the famous Blue Train travels a quiet Englishwoman newly come into money, an unhappy heiress, a reckless husband, a dancer, a fortune-hunting count — and, by the sheerest chance, the little Belgian detective with the egg-shaped head and the waxed moustache: Hercule Poirot.

Published in 1928, the novel carried Poirot to the sunlit French Riviera and its casinos, and Christie herself judged it a favourite to reread. It is a jewelled puzzle of alibis and disguises, set against cobalt sea and mimosa gold.

This illustrated edition opens the mystery into a gallery of plates — the cast and their portraits, the map of the journey and its glittering places, the great scenes, and six movement plates you unlock as you read, each drawing the story so far together without giving the game away. Watch each face — in a Christie, the truth hides in plain sight.