With far-fetched good luck, Poirot even discovers a partly burned scrap of paper preserving three words that will prove the key to everything. Who was the barely glimpsed figure in the red kimono? Whose is a handkerchief embroidered with the initial “H”? The detective then carefully notes the arrangement of the sleeping compartments, the movements of train personnel in the night, the apparent time of the stabbing and the possibility that the original murder plan was altered because of the snow. For most of the novel’s middle section, Poirot simply interrogates the passengers. At the same time, she shows little interest in atmospheric description and makes no serious effort to fathom the psychology of her suspects. Christie even divides her book into three sections, corresponding to the acts in a play, and she employs a great deal of dialogue, one of her real strengths as a writer. Like so many Golden Age mysteries, the original novel is essentially a closet drama, one that closely observes the theatrical unities of place, time and action. inlibrary printdisabled internetarchivebooks delawarecountydistrictlibrary americana.
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