Review: The Mystery Of The Blue Train by Agatha Christie

I must be getting very picky, as this is the very first book by Agatha Christie that I did not enjoy. 
Usually, I just generally like them - they are all nice and cozy little mysteries, but apparently not this one. 

It started out well enough, but then the writing became choppy and confusing. Pages were filled with useless blabbering and unnecessary conversations. There was very little actual detective work in it. And in the end many, many questions were left unanswered. 
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It felt rushed and unfinished. 

There was also a lot of "you are an old woman now, you will never find a man" nonsense. I understand that times were different in 1920's, and getting a rich husband or a rich wife was literally everybody's goal, but it was just too much. Almost in every chapter somebody would either tell the main heroine, or any other woman around the age of 30, that they are now 'old maids'. That they have missed their chance in life on finding a husband. That basically, their life might as well be over. The book kept beating on this idea like a drum, and I really didn't like that. 

I suspected the correct murderer from the very start, but then I started suspecting bunch of other people too. But still in the end - it was all just very anti-climatic.

There are many GREAT mysteries by Agatha Christie, I mean she wrote over 250 books.
But this is not one of them.

On a side note I was very surprised to see drastic similarities between Katherine Grey, the main character of this book, and Tessa Gray, the main character of popular YA novels, The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare.
Besides an obvious that they both have basically the same last name, Katherine and Tessa were very much alike. Both had those big grey, knowing eyes. Both were very proper ladies. Both were very new and unexperienced at love.
I can't help but wonder if Tessa was modeled after Katherine in any way, or if it's just my imagination. 

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