1. English 1061 Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

2. Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976)
Author of 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, famous for detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple
The best selling novelist in the world (2 billion copies) – more than J.K. Rowling (so far)
Born into an upper-middle class family in Devon; married twice
Taught herself to read as a small child
Never formally educated, but attended a girls’ school; served in a hospital during wartimes
Died of dementia or Alzheimer’s

3. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
Partly inspired by Christie’s vacation in Istanbul and on the Orient Express
Partly inspired by the real life kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son in 1932, also resulting in a British maid’s suicide

4. “The Trial of the Century”
Lindbergh was famous for making the first transatlantic solo airplane flight in 1927
His son Charles Jr. was kidnapped in 1932 from his family home in New Jersey
Although a maid was accused, German carpenter Bruno Richard Hauptman was convicted in 1934 and executed in 1936 for his murder

5. 1930s Trains Require people to be together in close spaces
Projected a romantic aura of wealth and adventure
Istanbul was a negative place, associated with crime and danger

6. The Passengers Hector Willard MacQueen, Cassetti’s secretary
Edward Henry Masterman, Cassetti’s valet, Colonel Armstrong’s batman (servant)
Colonel John Arbuthnot, Colonel Armstrong’s best friend
Mrs. Caroline Martha Hubbard, Linda Arden, Daisy’s grandmother
Countess Helena Andrenyi, Daisy’s aunt; Count Ruldoph Andrenyi 
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, Sonia Armstrong’s godmother
Miss Mary Debenham, the Armstrong family’s governess
Fräulein Hildegarde Schmidt, the Armstrong family’s cook
Antonio Foscarelli, the Armstrong family’s chauffeur
Miss Greta Ohlsson, Daisy Armstrong’s nurse
Pierre Michel, the train conductor, father of Susanne, the Armstrongs’ nursemaid
Cyrus Hardman, Susanne’s lover

7. Hercule Poirot (poh-roh)
Christie wrote numerous books
with Poirot as the detective hero, though later in life she became tired of him and called him arrogant.
Is he actually a ‘hero’?

8. Movie version 2017
Does Poirot do the right thing at the end, letting the passengers get away with murder—literally?