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Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
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By Susan · 14 posts · 16 views
last updated Sep 02, 2025 12:08AM
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Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
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What Members Thought

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This is the best P.D. James I've read so far. The mystery dove-tailed beautifully at the end. It was emotionally and intellectually satisfying and I turned off the light and went to bed satisfied.
Twenty minutes later, I was unable to sleep because the denouement was really bothering me. I was annoyed at Aaron for his choice. And then I started wondering if I was being unfair by comparing him to Miskin. I started thinking about all their conversations. If Miskin had been more sympathetic, would ...more
Twenty minutes later, I was unable to sleep because the denouement was really bothering me. I was annoyed at Aaron for his choice. And then I started wondering if I was being unfair by comparing him to Miskin. I started thinking about all their conversations. If Miskin had been more sympathetic, would ...more

Original Sin by P.D. James is book 9 in the Adam Dalgliesh series. This mystery involves an old-established publishing firm housed in a building more suitable for a museum called non-ironically Innocent House. The firm seems to be facing more than its fair share of death and mischievous pranks. Are the deaths and the pranks connected? Are the suicides really suicides? Are the deaths even connected to one another? There is a complicated cast of characters each with their own desperate tales, loss
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This was a good, albeit somewhat fanciful plot, involving an upmarket book publisher established for over a century in a mock Venetian Palazzo on the River Thames. A large body count, with a complex backstory providing the motive and method for the murders. The author does unfortunately go in for long and rather tedious descriptions of rooms, buildings, situations, which led to a quite long novel, and the list of characters was also quite lengthy. The private lives of Dalgleish's two assistant D
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This was moving along, all be it slowly, towards a four star read until I came to the very disappointing ending. Excellent descriptions of an imitation Venetian palace on the banks of the Thames and interesting secondary characters, but too many words overall. James can breathe life into her characters so it must be a choice to have Dalglish, and now his second in command, so very stiff.

Jun 25, 2015
Erin Sorrels
added it

May 24, 2018
Azma Dar
added it

Jul 03, 2019
Vanessa
marked it as murder-mayhem

May 15, 2020
Gary Vassallo
marked it as ebook-library

Nov 26, 2023
Niveditha
marked it as to-read