The Woman on the Orient Express

Loved this novel! Highly recommended!! The story includes famous writer Agatha Christie, soon after her divorce. This is a story of three women in crisis - much based on true events. I often stopped to look up characters on the Internet which made the story even more interesting. The novel includes traveling on the Orient Express, at a dig, in exotic places, and in romantic places. Just excellent story! The book deserves an A++++++

Three women come into close association onboard The Orient Express bound for Baghdad in 1928. One woman is the legendary writer of crime fiction, Agatha Christie. Still reeling from her husband's infidelity and their subsequent divorce, as well as her much heralded 10-day disappearance, Agatha doesn't feel she can be in England when her ex-husband marries his mistress. The divorce process in England was torturous at the time and Agatha is exhausted. The press has not been kind to her and she is travelling under her maiden name, Miller. Her cabin mate is Katherine Keeley, travelling to Baghdad to marry Leonard Wooley, the renowned archaeologist. Her secret concerns the tragic death by suicide of her first husband just six months into their marriage. The third woman is Nancy Nelson, on the run from her abusive, titled husband. Nancy is carrying another man's child and is terrified. In the course of the journey the women grow close, but it is in Bagdad that all secrets are revealed. The descriptions of the journey and Middle Eastern locales are breathtaking. One can almost smell the air and hear the sounds of Istanbul, Damascus and Baghdad in the late 1920's.

The three women band together to protect each other, especially the vulnerable Nancy. In the beginning, Katherine appears to be an unsympathetic character, both controlling and manipulative of everyone around, especially the men. Those men include Agatha's future husband, Max Mallowan. Much has been written about Agatha Christie and her disappearance. There is nothing new here on the disappearance but as Christie never addressed it in later life, not even in her autobiography, I don't think we will ever know the why or how. Katherine Keeley Woolley, who became an experienced excavator in her own right, has been overshadowed by her famous husband and persistent rumours about her sexuality. Those rumours and the possible truth behind them are very sensitively handled in The Woman on the Orient Express.

It seems to me that the historical fiction can be measured by the interest it sparks in real historical events and people. I have read everything I can find on Katharine Keeley Woolley (admittedly not much) and am fascinated by her. She deserves a book all her own. Of course, Agatha Christie's books are a large part of my life-long love of reading. I thoroughly enjoyed The Woman on the Orient Express. Thanks to Lake Union and NetGalley.com for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.

I swear that this book was crafted perfectly. Of course, it all depends on one’s literary taste, but for me, it was just the right choice at the right time, particularly as I am currently traveling through Britain and for the time being, the English accent is the only one I can hear around me. Obviously, I am fascinated by Agatha Christie and have read more than forty pieces of her work, including her 700-something-page autobiography (twice!). I do admit that there are several historical liberties that the author had to take in order to make the book more attractive, but I honestly wasn’t bothered by any. Another reason I warmly recommend the novel is that it manages to be character-driven in spite of the fact that there are actually three characters that all work together in defining and sketching the personal life of Agatha Christie. Besides, I feel obliged to be honest and say that I was overwhelmed by a fuzzy, comfortable feeling while reading The Woman on the Orient Express and after having heard the author’s voice in a BBC interview, it was like the lady herself was speaking to me, at times.

As for the writing style, in all truthfulness, I have nothing bad to say about it. I thought that this novel would be a bit cheesy or too romantic for my taste, but it turned out to be a pleasurable read. It wasn’t overwritten in the least and it seems to me like Lindsay Jayne Ashford invested a lot of time in research.

If you love a good mystery (perhaps the Bess Crawford or Maggie Hope series) or books about relationships between women (think Steel Magnolias or The Help), you should read this book.

The book starts with three women traveling on the Orient Express headed to Baghdad. They each have a history that they would prefer to leave behind, which unfolds on the train and then when they arrive at their destination.

As a lover of historical fiction, this was a fun read. Thinking about what it would be like to ride the Orient Express all the way to Turkey during the famous railroad's heyday is a fantastic image to consider. The author also describes foreign bazaars, souks, and bandits common to the time.
Watching the relationships between the three main characters develop was an equally strong aspect to the story. Agatha is the main character, but her friends Nancy and Kathleen both also have interesting stories that keep the reader engaged.

Fans of Agatha Christie, historical fiction, and cozy mysteries will enjoy this book-- a perfect fall mystery to read as the weather starts to change!

I really enjoyed this book; it was just so pleasant and relaxing to read. The woman on the Orient Express is Agatha Christie and this is a documented trip she took to the Middle East in 1928 after her divorce from her husband, Archie. Although this is a novel, most of the characters you meet are real people but events that could have happened, but are not documented, are put in by the author to add interest to the story. I recommend this if you want to spend an interesting afternoon reading about Agatha and her adventures.

There's is a superb amount of historical context and research put into this book, but it is just dreadfully boring to read. I really think that the main issue with this book was that it just tried to cram TOO much into it.

As a reader you start out with a weird as crap beginning of some dude popping up to Agatha Christie to talk about the past, but in a creeper/stalker/spy type of way; which even after reading it still didn't make a lot of sense to me. Then we also follow two other women who end up on the same Orient Express when Agatha is on her way to Baghdad, hoping to rendezvous with a man from her past.

There is a big theme of woman empowerment after a failed marriage/relationship and that is a spectacular topic. I loved the sweeping descriptions of locations from the past and the thoughts of the women. What didn't work for me was that these characters would have been better served broken up into entirely new chapters instead of jumbled all together. (Perhaps this is better depicted in a physical form than it was on the kindle format I read).

Overall, I found myself task saturated and overwhelmed with so much information continuously rapid fired at the reader and then left to sort it all out and try to figure out which pieces should be attributed to which woman. My favorite character was actually Katharine, one of the women other than Agatha Christie, as she was portrayed in a somewhat pompous, air of conceit.

Overall, this wasn't more than a 3 story read for me, felt more like 2 books smashed into one.

I enjoyed this book greatly. I was impressed with the actual research about the countries the story took place in. From the descriptions of the smells, tastes, colors, sounds - I felt immersed in the time and the places. Loved that Agatha Christie was featured in the story (as a big Agatha Christie fan, this was a treat). Well written. Looking forward to reading other books by this author.

This is an enjoyable and readable novel and if it didn't exploit the real life events of Agatha Christie, who is one of my life-long favourite authors, I would have really loved this book. It would have stood on its own without using Agatha and all the real-life people in her life at that time.  I do not like it when modern authors use real (and long dead ones) authors as characters in their books. To me it is a lazy and not very creative way to sell their book. 

I really enjoyed this book of fiction mixed with fact. Agatha Christie was my favorite author when I was growing up and just starting to read mysteries. I had a hard time putting this book down. I really liked the Orient Express travel part of the story and imagined myself on that train in the 1920's. I could picture the landscape very well too. The characters in the book were interesting and the storyline seemed to weave in an out of fictional Christie and real Christie seamlessly. I was surprised they kept referring to Constantinople as Istanbul because I thought the name change didn't come about until 1930, but maybe they called it Istanbul before it was officially named that.

Well-done Lindsay Jayne Ashford, there was much to be admired with this novel. Details were rich and rewarding. Characters and dialogue were nicely formed.
My problem? The Agatha I believe I know wasn't the Agatha in this book. Perhaps it's just me, as it seems so many have given this five stars, but my Agatha is a devious woman who pays intense attention to human interactions. I found Lindsay's Agatha to be different. That's fine, it's her interpretation. But my Agatha would be sitting at dinner and thinking about who would like to kill someone and how would they do it. Just a difference of opinion, but enough of a difference for me that I had to put the story down about half-way because I kept yelling at her Agatha. Again, our views aren't the same. That's what makes the world go round, right?