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Teaching Murder on the Orient Express

Re-orient yourself before teaching.

  • Activities: 13
  • Quiz Questions: 127

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Agatha Christie is the grand dame of the British murder mystery genre. During her lifetime she penned 66 works of detective fiction, nearly all of them whodunit plots with bloody knives, poison pens, and smoking guns galore. Whether on a remote island or a posh steam engine, Christie's fiction deals in death. The result? She's sold more than two billion copies of her books.

What can we say? Death sells, and Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie's most famous novels. In it, we find the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot on a steam engine traveling from Syria to London. Everything's fine and dandy, until the train is caught in a snowdrift and one of the passengers is murdered. Cut off from the police, the little Belgian detective is pressed to take the case—and using Shmoop's teaching materials, your students just may crack Christie's code before Poirot does.

In this guide, you'll find

  • a structured debate about different characters' criminal motivations.
  • a creative writing-filled review of common plot structures, and an analysis of Murder's story arc.
  • skits about justice—one of the novel's major themes.

After all—what's the fun of a murder mystery if an educational website isn't mouth-breathing and revealing spoilers over your shoulder while you read?

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 13 – 18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students
  • Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text
  • Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students
  • A note from Shmoop's teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles

Want more help teaching Teaching Murder on the Orient Express?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: Blogger Chas Edwards writes: "A study of 108 Super Bowl ads from the past two years concludes that the most popular and effective commercials are the ones that make the best use of good storytelling. Plot development and narrative structure, apparently, trump celebrity spokesmodels, computer generated animals, fart jokes, and David Beckham in his underwear." (Source)

How does a good story come about? What's it made of? After going over basic plot structure and the features of a mystery story, your students will show how Murder on the Orient Express follows a traditional story arc, and will then work in partners to craft their own short mysteries using those same characteristics. It'll take two solid class periods for this, or around two hours. (If you want to go through the extended writing process of revision and publication, you may need a couple more days.)

P.S. It's a good idea to complete the "Deadly Motives" activity before you do this one.

Materials Needed: link to Harvard Business Review article, a copy of the text and/or Shmoop's summary page

Step 1: Follow up on the Chas Edwards quote above by going to this article from the Harvard Business Review.

  • Check out the Super Bowl commercial, "Puppy Love," embedded in the article.
  • Read and briefly discuss paragraphs 5 – 7.
    • Who is this guy, Keith Quesenberry, and what does he do?
  • Read and briefly discuss paragraphs 8 – 9 and the image in between.
    • What did Quesenberry discover made the best commercials?
    • How are Shakespeare and the Super Bowl connected?
    • How many acts did his plays have?

Step 2: Get Freytag's Pyramid into your students' hands, either by passing out copies or by projecting it up for them to draw their own. Go over the plot terms (and a simple example, if needed) so everyone's on the same page:

  • Exposition (includes setting and character intros)
  • Rising action (the problem happens in the beginning)
  • Climax
  • Falling action/reversal
  • Resolution/dénouement

Step 3: Apply all this to Murder on the Orient Express:

  • Have your students sketch out another, much larger pyramid onto a clean sheet of paper and label the five main parts.
  • Their job is to write one to three sentences for each part, a sort of summary.
  • If they seem to be getting all this, give them time to work independently before going over it all.
  • If they need a bit more guidance, do a slow release where you begin together, give them time to work independently, review after a few minutes, and then let them alone again.

Step 4: Have the students huddle up in small groups to discuss their plot analyses. They'll check to see they have:

  • Exposition: Make sure students include the location, time of year (very important in this story!), and the character intros (it's very short, just the beginning).
  • Rising action: The murder! What happened? Interview some people (most of the story is here).
  • Climax: Poirot solves it.
  • Falling action: He explains how it all happened.
  • Resolution: Students should describe the very brief conclusion.

Feel free to direct them to our page on the plot analysis for the book for some extra help.

Step 5: Now that they've laid the groundwork, it's time for students to sit with a partner and write their very own mystery. In this case, we're looking for about 600 to 700 words (or around three pages).

Here are a few pointers:

  • They can start by prewriting, so words and short phrases are enough to get ideas down.
  • Agatha had 17 characters and a year to write. They've got slightly less time, so five characters should lighten things up.
  • Think like Shakespeare and keep everything tidy in five acts. This will, hopefully, help them make sure everything's included and keep the story moving.
  • If they get stuck, encourage them to refer to their notes from Step 3 to see what's included in each part.
  • Characters…
    • can be known through direct and indirect characterization.
    • have traits.
    • have motives. All of them (except the detective and victim). Even if they're the nicest person in the world, if they're a suspect in a mystery, there's going to be some reason why they might want to commit the crime.
  • Dialogue is always interesting.

Step 6: You can stand back and look on in wonder as students work furiously on their masterpieces together. Then, when they're all finished and satisfied, it's time for them to come back together and share their stories.

Instructions for Your Students

Blogger Chas Edwards writes: "A study of 108 Super Bowl ads from the past two years concludes that the most popular and effective commercials are the ones that make the best use of good storytelling. Plot development and narrative structure, apparently, trump celebrity spokesmodels, computer generated animals, fart jokes, and David Beckham in his underwear." (Source)

How does a good story come about? What's it made of? After going over basic plot structure and the features of a mystery story, first you'll show how Murder on the Orient Express follows a traditional story arc and then you'll work with a partner to write your own short mystery using those characteristics.

Step 1: Follow up on the Chas Edwards quote above by going to this article from the Harvard Business Review.

  • Check out the Super Bowl commercial, "Puppy Love," embedded in the article.
  • Read and briefly discuss paragraphs 5 – 7.
    • Who is this guy, Keith Quesenberry, and what does he do?
  • Read and briefly discuss paragraphs 8 – 9 and the image in between.
    • What did Quesenberry discover made the best commercials?
    • How are Shakespeare and the Super Bowl connected?
    • How many acts did his plays have?

Step 2: Get your hands on a copy of Freytag's Pyramid. Go over the plot terms with your Teach (and a simple example, if needed) so everyone's on the same page:

  • Exposition (includes setting and character intros)
  • Rising action (the problem happens in the beginning)
  • Climax
  • Falling action/reversal
  • Resolution/dénouement

Step 3: Now you'll apply all this goodness to Murder on the Orient Express.

  • Sketch out another, much larger pyramid onto a clean sheet of paper and label the five main parts. 
  • Write one to three sentences about Murder on the Orient Express for each part, sort of like a mini-summary.

Step 4: Huddle up with a small group to discuss your plot analysis. Check to see if you included:

  • Exposition: Make sure you include the location, time of year (very important in this story!), and the character intros (it's very short, just the beginning).
  • Rising action: The murder! What happened? Interview some people (most of the story is here).
  • Climax: Poirot solves it.
  • Falling action: He explains how it all happened.
  • Resolution: Describe the very brief conclusion.

You can also go to our page on the plot analysis for the book for some extra help.

Step 5: Time to grab a partner and write your own mystery. In this case (hah), we're looking for about 600 to 700 words (or around three pages).

Writing a story is no easy feat, and since you have a limited amount of time, here are a few pointers:

  • This is prewriting, so words and short phrases are enough to get ideas down.
  • Agatha had 17 characters and a year to write. You've got slightly less time, so five characters should lighten things up.
  • Think like Shakespeare and keep everything tidy in five acts.
  • If you get stuck, refer to your notes from Step 3 to see what's included in each part.
  • Characters…
    • can be known through direct and indirect characterization.
    • have traits.
    • have motives. All of them (except the detective and victim.) Even if they're the nicest person in the world, if they're a suspect in a mystery, there's going to be some reason why they might want to commit the crime.
  • Dialogue is always interesting.

Step 6: Go ahead. Write your mini masterpiece.

Step 7: All done? Make sure it's polished and then be ready to share your story.