Show Notes by Cheryl Find us on Instagram at @4evershelfmates Episode 3: Classics Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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A few things:

The Orient Express is a real train, and it still runs trips today - you too can take a trip in 1920s glitz and glamor. Let’s hope no one actually gets murdered today... Atlas Obscura has a great image of the Orient Express’s route map - scroll about halfway down the page. It’s clear that the Orient Express featured in the book was the red line from Istanbul, Turkey (or Stanboul as it’s spelled in the book) to Calais, France.

We don’t always think about Greece being a cold country, what with the islands known for beaches and swimming, but in the north where the Orient Express transects it can get very cold. There have been several reports of snowstorms in Greece in winter 2022, even one so terrible that it hit Athens.

A railfan or rail enthusiast is someone who is recreationally interested in rail transport. There are a wide variety of rail enthusiast websites for those who are interested.

Hercule Poirot is quite a famous character as he appears in forty-four books, all by Agatha Christie. Compared with her other famous character, Miss Marple - who only appears in fifteen novels, it’s clear that Christie enjoyed writing Poirot.

Japonism was all the rage in the late 1800s, influencing everything from Impressionist art to fashion but was waning in the 1930s. Kimonos were still popular, as exhibited by Hollywood stars like Marlene Dietrich.

Murder can be funny. Just watch the 1985 movie, Clue.

Masterpiece Theater is a series of programs on the Public Broadcasting Service. They are almost always dramas, and quite frequently British dramas airing for the first time in the United States. Masterpiece Theater has continuously aired since 1971. Monsterpiece Theater is a sketch parody of Masterpiece Theater for children on Sesame Street.

Agatha Christie, like many people of her era, of her era, had racist, antisemitic, and bigoted attitudes that permeated her writings. This has made reading her and adapting her works difficult for contemporary audiences. How much was Christie a bigot herself versus how much she reflected the bigoted attitudes of her times is up for debate among Christie scholars and readers. Here is a thoughtful piece about how all of these issues were handled during production of the latest film adaptation of the Christie novel, Death on the Nile.

Here’s the list of the characters in the book. We love it when our producer researches things for us in the moment.

This book has been made into a movie many times. The most recent version came out in 2017. Here is a list of all the actors who’ve played Poirot. Even though Mirele thinks Barack Obama has some Poirot-like qualities, he has never played Poirot in any capacity.

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Join us next time when we discuss Mirele’s classics selection: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

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