Murder on the Orient Express A murder is discovered, and Poirot's trip home to London from the Middle East is interrupted to solve the murder. The US title of "Murder in the Calais Coach" was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel "Stamboul Train" which had been published in the United States as "Orient Express". After taking the Taurus Express from Aleppo in Syria to Istanbul, private detective Hercule Poirot arrives at the Tokatlian Hotel. There he receives a telegram prompting him to return to London. He instructs the concierge to book a first-class compartment on the Simplon-route Orient Express service, leaving
Sleeping Murder the newspaper notice seeking her, which reinforces the story's setting in the 1930s as the author intended in her final revisions done in 1950. Christie’s original manuscript of "Sleeping Murder" was entitled "Murder in Retrospect" after one of the chapters in the book. When the Hercule Poirot novel "Five Little Pigs" was later serialized in the US in "Collier's Weekly" from September to November 1941, the magazine’s editing board retitled it "Murder in Retrospect". This was also the title used by Christie’s American publisher Dodd Mead and Company, presumably in order to capitalize on the recent US serialization. Christie's original