Murder on the Orient Express: Part 3 Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Here, Poirot chastises M. Bouc for discounting the evidence they’ve gathered, saying he “did not observe” because he “did not listen.” This echoes a classic line of Sherlock Holmes, who had chided Watson in a similar way: “You see, but you do not observe.” This places Poirot and M. Bouc in a Holmes/Watson relationship, which bears out as Poirot is consistently in a position of explaining his thinking to M. Bouc. More significantly, Poirot’s choice of verb (“listen” rather than Holmes’ “see”) distinguishes their approach to detective work. Sherlock uses the eye to detect fine elements of physical evidence while Poirot uses the ear to measure witness testimony and find clues to their psychological states.

Poirot’s facility with languages makes him especially attentive to nuances, such as whether a French statement might have been spoken by a native speaker. Clearly, Ratchett was not the one answering. Whether Ratchett was alive or not at this time, a fluent French speaker was with him in his cabin.

Poirot continues with his exceedingly careful approach, speaking, as he did in the case of the conductor’s uniform, in terms of conditional statements. If the stopped watch was altered, it would have been done to turn suspicion away from someone who had a solid alibi for that time.

The list of suspects and their essential information is as much a clarification for the reader of the novel as it is a helpful guide for Poirot. The amount of information involved is considerable, and a reader needs a way to synthesize it at a glance. The list primarily shows a web of alibis offered for each passenger by others, and no suspect seems likelier than another except Princess Dragomiroff, who seems incapable of the physical act of the crime.