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
Saint-Calais by the monks, thereby retaining a significant lake area. Reaction against monastic landowners and the relative proximity to Paris (under twenty-four hours by stage-coach) conditioned the nineteenth century politics of the town. The coming of the railways and more recently of the motorway favoured neighbouring La Ferté-Bernard which has grown at the expense of Saint-Calais, which has a population under 4000 and which lost its sous-préfecture status in 1926. The town however retains certain services appropriate to that level, e.g. hospital facilities. Saint-Calais was involved in the 1906 Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, the world's first motoring Grand