The Mini Mysteries line continues with the second book. (The first was The Mysterious Affair at Styles.) As before, this children’s book is written by Marci Kay Monson and illustrated by Greg Paprocki based on the original novel by Agatha Christie.
The Mystery of the Blue Train was Christie’s eighth novel and the fifth featuring Hercule Poirot. Why the jump ahead? At a guess, because the in-between books were
- The Murder on the Links — too historical in the plot, writes out Hastings (already?), maybe a little too violent for a kids’ picture book
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd — infamous! I’d love to see them try this, but rather complicated
- The Big Four — made up of loosely linked short stories, a spy thriller more than a mystery
Which brings us to a jewel robbery and murder on a luxury train journey. Ruth, ignoring her rich American father’s advice, takes the Heart of Fire, a famous ruby, on her trip to the French Riviera. She’s killed on the train (no body is shown), and Poirot must work out the motive and murderer and find the missing jewel.
The previous book had our detective, Hercule Poirot, accompanied by a mouse pal named Hastings. Here a white cat named Pierre is there instead; the pet also serves as a puzzle, with readers asked to find him in every page spread. (It’s not hard.)
I’m impressed that the mystery is told and solved in only a dozen illustrations and the accompanying rhymed quartets. Plus, each spread has an activity. The art is wonderful — full of details, timeless in style, and colorful — and the glossary has a few French phrases.
The third in the Mini Mysteries series, coming in April, switches detectives to retell the first Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock. (The publisher provided a review copy.)
English (US) · 