It’s no secret that I’ve been on an Agatha Christie kick. In the spirit of “Everything Old is New Again,” I’ve been revisiting the classics. I love books but lately I’ve been unable to resist the siren song of the Agatha Christie movies and miniseries that have cropped up in the past few years. With star studded casts, lush period costumes, and gorgeous cinematography, they’ve caught my fancy as of late. The best part: they still hold up.

Crooked House

While on assignment in Cairo, a young diplomat, Charles, has an affair with a young Englishwoman, Sophia. He returns to London and becomes a private detective. It seems he wasn’t exactly a diplomat, more of a spy. And the young woman wasn’t a random Englishwoman. Sophia is the granddaughter of a wealthy tycoon, Aristide Leonides. He was found dead and she suspects murder. It takes little persuasion for Charles to accept her plea to uncover the killer but once he arrives at the stately manor, a long list of suspects emerges.

I love character actors and with a roster containing the likes of Glenn Close, Julian Sands, Gillian Anderson, Christina Hendricks, and Terrence Stamp, I was in heaven. Though I sussed out the killer by the third act turn, it was still an enjoyable watch. The act three climax was fantastic (and I did NOT see it coming). Crooked House is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Murder on the Orient Express

PBS Masterpiece Mystery airs the Poirot series on a regular basis, along with Miss Marple, so I am familiar with the Belgian detective. It’s possible I’ve seen some version of this film in the past but, upon viewing, I couldn’t recall the plot other than there’s a train and someone dies on said train. It’s much more than that.

When his vacation in Istanbul is cut short to attend to a case in London, Hercule Poirot (NOT Hercules, he didn’t slay any lions!) is offered passage on the famous Orient Express by his friend Bouc, who just happens to be in the same bakery when Poirot is called back. The train is strangely full for the middle of winter. As the train travels across the continent, they find one of the passengers brutally murdered just before an avalanche derails the train.  Workers race to free the train while Poirot races to find the murderer.

The cast was even more star studded than usual with Kenneth Branagh, Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr., Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, and Willem Dafoe.

Again, the story completely holds up. It was enjoyable to watch as the clues piled up and the great detective accepted then rejected various possible culprits. Great twists abound and the ending was satisfying. Murder on the Orient Express is currently available to rent on DVD and streaming.

And Then There Were None

Unlike the previous two, And Then There Were None was made into a miniseries for BBC One. Lifetime bought the American broadcasting rights. I’m sad to say I missed this one when it aired on television. Luckily, the amazing local library carries the DVDs.

A group of eight strangers are invited, each under a different pretext, to a remote island mansion by the mysterious Mr. and Mrs. Owen. The guests are met by the staff, a butler and his wife, the maid/cook (which makes ten people in total). The hosts are absent. The mansion itself is an odd one, beautifully furnished but, in each room, a framed version of the poem, Ten Little Soldiers, hangs on the wall. The guest who notices the poem also notices a strange centerpiece at dinner, ten glass figures. Over the course of the next few days, one by one, the guests die in ways that correspond to each soldier in the poem. One by one, the glass figures disappear.

This may be my favorite of the three. The remoteness of the house gives it a Gothic feel. Unlikable characters abound, so it was a shock to see who died in which order and how they were offed. A random unsettling moment at the beginning came back in the third act to cinch a great twist. Not to mention the wonderful cast: Charles Dance, Douglas Booth, Maeve Dermody, Burn Gorman (he was fantastic in TURN: Washington’s Spies and he was great here as well), Sam Neill, Anna Maxwell Martin, Noah Taylor, Aidan Turner, Miranda Richardson, and Toby Stephens.

Agatha Christie’s work continues to thrill audiences because she was such a strong writer. The plots remain relevant and the twists still shock. Kenneth Branagh announced that Death on the Nile will be released next year. I can’t wait that long for a Christie fix so I’ll be headed to the library to pick up some of her books. You should, too.