Oh Papa Poirot, what wonderful fun shall we have with your little gray cells today?
A young woman is found murdered on the Plymouth Express, and her millionaire father has put Poirot on the case. But there are plenty of suspects. Will Poirot pull off another miracle?
The core premise of this one is pretty engaging. A dead body found on the train. It’s a tried and true idea that Christie herself has done before!
I’d even say done better. Because this one is pretty underwhelming.
It gets off to a pretty solid start. The setup for the mystery is really cool, as we get to read the discovery of the body from another character’s perspective before going to Poirot. And the emotional stakes climb when we meet the victim’s father.
But as it goes on, it becomes progressively less and less interesting. There is no thrilling hunt for clues, nor any particularly interesting suspects. After Poirot’s interview, things just kinda happen, then the mystery comes to an underwhelming conclusion and the story ends. We don’t even have much of Poirot’s signature sass to keep us entertained!
Luckily, this is one of the shorter Poirot stories. So it’s not like you’ll have to invest multiple hours only for this mystery to disappoint you. All you’ll lose out of it is about half an hour of your life.
There really isn’t much to say about the Plymouth Express. If you’re a die-hard Poirot fan, you might get a kick out of it. But if you’re just a casual mystery fan looking for a memorable thrill, this one ain’t it.
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