Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Perhaps one of the most famous mysteries by Agatha Christie, this book has at its centre her pompously eccentric yet charming Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. The original book came out in 1934, and its latest movie adaptation came out in 2017, starring the formidable Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp as part of a stellar cast. The book was inspired by a number of real life incidents, including an actual marooning of the Orient Express in 1932 and the kidnapping and murder of a child in 1929. 

What makes the book most chilling is the almost-perfect murder, with its dozen stab wounds of surprisingly different intensities and indicating different kinds of killers (right-handed, left-handed, strong, tall, short, weak of hand… it is an investigator’s nightmare). The mystery, as one reviewer put it, would never have been solved if Poirot had not been on the train. Just the book to carry with you on a train journey.

Credit: Wikipedia