Murder on the Orient Express
Caution. Age: 14+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
This is the detective story at its cleverest, with almost nothing shown on the page. It takes the murder of a child seriously and shows how one crime wounds a whole household. But the ending approves of evil. Twelve people kill a man the courts let go, and Poirot lets a false story go to the police. The book calls that justice. It is vengeance and a lie, and it weakens charity.
For parents
Read aloud from 12. Independent reading from 14. Common Sense Media says 12 and Plugged In says 15. The backstory includes a murdered child and two suicides, and characters use ethnic slurs. Tell your teen that the ending is wrong. Ask why the twelve had no right to kill a guilty man (CCC 2262, Romans 12:19). Ask why Poirot should not have hidden the truth.