Murder on the Orient Express Murder on the Orient Express Murder on the Orient Express is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the United States, it was published on 28 February 1934, under the title of "Murder in the Calais Coach," by Dodd, Mead and Company. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the U.S. edition at $2.00. The elegant train of the 1930s, the Orient Express, is stopped by heavy snowfall, with many passengers.
Murder on the Leviathan murder to start the action. The novel is set in 1878. The story opens with the murder in Paris of Lord Littleby, all seven of his servants and two children of servants. All were poisoned except for Littleby, who was bludgeoned with an ancient Indian artifact, a golden statuette of Shiva, which belonged to Lord Littleby and was stolen from his room, along with an old Indian shawl. French detective Gustave Gauche, in charge of the investigation, boards the passenger ship "Leviathan". Gauche knows that the murderer must be one of the first-class passengers, because one of the special golden