One of my favorite aspects of this Poirot adventure is the way Christie writes the first fourth or so of it, particularly the parts where she goes inside each of the passengers minds as they are getting ready to take off and in the air. Christie has SUCH a sharp way of capturing humans and their habits in even just a couple of sentences and I just love how she winds together all their crossing paths and motivations.
The plot gets a touch laggy around the halfway point, but nothing too bad. There are plenty of red herrings in here, too; it's so enjoyable to poke at them and follow my own little trains of thoughts to see what I can come up with! It may not always be the right answer but it's fun either way. ( )

I had a hard time keeping track of who was who, which isn't necessarily uncommon for me with Christie's books.

It was especially difficult when the audiobook narrator did very similar accents for two characters speaking to one another and there weren't always speech tags to help with the distinction.

I had no idea who the culprit was or how they did it, and I'm not sure if I would have done any better with a print version.

Note: There was some profanity, including God's name misused. ( )

Finally dragged myself to the local library and realized that it was easier than I'd expected to get a library card. Should have done that years ago! Better late than never. As my first borrow I decided to get this Agatha Christie book out. It's been a while, and she's really easy to read. Exceptionally so, actually - I devoured this book over two days flat. Nothing special, just formulaic pulp, but I think I needed something easy to read after slogging through the Iliad. ( )

So... I didn't work out who was the culprit, but I did work out *quite* early on that there was a very important character missing from the discussions of whodunnit. No one was ever mentioning this person, and it didn't take a detective to deduce that this person had another identity that would prove to be very important indeed.
I'm not used to a gap that glaring from Agatha Christie... usually she covers all bases and doesn't give you room to think she's skipping anything. But I'll allow it, seeing as how it wasn't actually the culprit. :) (But was still part of the solution.) ( )

Poirot gently uncrossed his knees, withdrew his gaze from the ceiling, and looked the young man full in the face. “My name is Hercule Poirot,” he said quietly, “and I am probably the greatest detective in the world.

Christie, Agatha. The Mystery of the Blue Train: Hercule Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot series Book 6) (p. 149). William Morrow Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.

Except when he has to fly (or sail) then Poirot suffers bad.

When a passenger on a plane dies, every one of the flight is a suspect. But only Poirot can figure out who the guilty party is.

I enjoyed this one. Hastings wasn't present - he might actually be spending some time with his mysterious wife for once - but Inspector Japp is on hand with a French detective, Fournier who also likes to exercise his little grey cells. And Japp ribbing Poirot made my day.

Once I was definitely on the firm ground, my brain began to work once more with its normal brilliance.’ ‘Go it, M. Poirot,’ said Japp with a grin. ‘Don’t have any false modesty.’ Poirot threw him a look and went on.

Christie, Agatha. Death in the Clouds: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot series Book 12) (p. 249). William Morrow Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.

The case itself was interesting with red herrings all over the place. I certainly didn't guess the murder but I enjoyed the reveal and Hercule catching out the guilty party in their lies. I liked the other characters as well, particularly Mr Clancy - the famed author who was too busy plotting a murder mystery to notice the actual murder. He was hilarious.

And poor Hercule being accused of the crime by the jury. Lmfao.

A solid murder mystery with a beloved detective. 3 stars. ( )