title: The Mystery of the Blue Train (Poirot)
author:  Agatha Christie 
description: The daughter of an American millionaire dies on a train en route for Nice...When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again -- for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing. The prime suspect is Ruth's estranged husband, Derek. Yet Poirot is not convinced, so he stages an eerie re-enactment of the journey, complete with the murderer on board!
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  The Mystery of the Blue Train 
  Agatha Christie 
   
   
  
  2 
   
   
   
  
  3 
   
  Chapter 1 
  The Man with the White Hair 
  It was close on midnight when a man crossed the Place de la Concorde. In spite 
  of the handsome fur coat which garbed his meagre form, there was something 
  essentially weak and paltry about him. 
  A little man with a face like a rat. A man, one would say, who could never play a 
  conspicuous part, or rise to prominence in any sphere. And yet, in leaping to 
  such a conclusion, an onlooker would have been wrong. For this man, negligible 
  and inconspicuous as he seemed, played a prominent part in the destiny of the 
  world. In an Empire where rats ruled, he was the king of the rats. 
  Even now, an Embassy awaited his return. But he had business to do first - 
  business of which the Embassy was not officially cognisant. His face gleamed 
  white and sharp in the moonlight. There was the least hint of a curve in the thin 
  nose. His father had been a Polish Jew, a journeyman t