Murder on the Orient Express | Characters

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Character	Description
Hercule Poirot	Hercule Poirot is an astonishingly clever Belgian detective with a stellar reputation for solving crimes. He is expert at looking beyond appearances to discover people's true characters and motives. Read More
Mary Debenham	Mary Debenham is a young English governess and spinster. Poirot describes her as "cool and efficient," but she is also quite strong-willed and passionate below the surface. Although she initially conceals it, she was a governess in the Armstrong household when Daisy Armstrong was kidnapped. Read More
M. Bouc	M. (Monsieur) Bouc is the director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the travel company that runs the Orient Express. A stout, elderly British man, he was once a police officer who worked on the Belgian force with Hercule Poirot. He becomes Poirot's sidekick during the murder investigation, and he is often humorously addled and frustrated by Poirot's quick-wittedness and the case's complications. Read More
Samuel Ratchett	Samuel Edward Ratchett is the false name used by Lenfranco Cassetti, the American leader of the gang that kidnapped and murdered Daisy Armstrong. Acquitted of the crime in a jury trial, he takes on a false identity and travels around Europe with a personal secretary. Read More
Mrs. Hubbard	Mrs. Caroline Hubbard, a brash, talkative, self-centered, and seemingly otherwise cartoonish "American" woman, conceals her true identity; she is Linda Arden, a famous British actress and the grandmother of Daisy Armstrong. Read More
Count Andrenyi	Count Rudolph Andrenyi is a Hungarian man who is very protective of his young wife, Helena, to whom he has been married for about a year. He acts as her surrogate in killing Ratchett.
Countess Andrenyi	Countess Helena Andrenyi, the wife of Count Andrenyi, is a young woman traveling on a diplomatic passport. Her maiden name is Goldenberg, and she is the younger daughter of Linda Arden, aka Mrs. Hubbard.
Colonel Arbuthnot	Colonel Arbuthnot is a British colonel traveling from India. He is a close friend of Colonel Armstrong, who saved Arbuthnot's life during the war.
Colonel Armstrong	Part British and part American, Colonel Toby Armstrong is the son of a Wall Street millionaire and the husband of Sonia Armstrong. He shoots himself after his wife dies.
Daisy Armstrong	Daisy Armstrong is the three-year-old daughter of actress Sonia Armstrong. She is kidnapped for ransom and murdered, and her murderer, Cassetti—who later goes by the name Samuel Ratchett—is acquitted on a technicality.
Sonia Armstrong	Sonia Armstrong is a world-famous actress and Daisy Armstrong's mother. After Daisy's murder, she has a miscarriage and dies.
Chef de train	The chef de train is the chief of the wagon-lit conductors.
Dr. Constantine	Dr. Constantine is the train's attending coroner. He examines Ratchett's body and sits in on Poirot's interviews with the passengers.
Princess Dragomiroff	Princess Dragomiroff is a very wealthy Russian widow described as having the face of a toad. Autocratic and strong-willed, she is close friends with Linda Arden—aka Mrs. Hubbard—and is Sonia Armstrong's godmother.
Lieutenant Dubosc	Lieutenant Dubosc is a young French lieutenant whose duty is to see Hercule Poirot off on the train.
Antonio Foscarelli	Antonio Foscarelli, a large, voluble Italian, is a car salesman who previously worked as the Armstrongs' chauffeur and was very fond of Daisy Armstrong. M. Bouc believes Foscarelli is involved in the Armstrong murders, mainly because Bouc is suspicious of Italians.
Cyrus Hardman	Cyrus Hardman is a large, flashy American who initially claims to be a traveling salesman. In reality he is a detective for a well-regarded detective firm in New York, hired by Ratchett.
Hector MacQueen	Hector MacQueen, a tall, personable American, is Ratchett's personal secretary. His father is the district attorney who prosecuted the Daisy Armstrong case.
Edward Masterman	Edward Henry Masterman is a reserved and expressionless British man who works as Ratchett's valet. He previously was a chauffeur in the Armstrong household.
Pierre Michel	Pierre Michel is the wagon-lit conductor of the Istanbul-Calais coach who discovers Ratchett has been murdered. His daughter, Susanne, was the Armstrongs' nursemaid; she committed suicide.
Greta Ohlsson	Greta Ohlsson, a Swedish woman, is a nurse who claims she previously was a matron in a missionary school. In fact she was Daisy Armstrong's nurse.
Hildegarde Schmidt	Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged German woman, pretends to be Princess Dragomiroff's maid, but in reality she is the Armstrongs' former cook.
Susanne	Susanne, a young French woman, is Pierre Michel's daughter and was the Armstrongs' nursemaid; she committed suicide after being wrongly implicated in Daisy Armstrong's kidnapping and murder.

Context Character Analysis

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