 Orient Express, by Graham Greene.
This book takes place on the famous train, and it includes a murder, but it's definitely not a whodunit. (Fun useless fact: the original US title of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was Murder in the Calais Coach, to avoid confusion with Greene's novel which was published 2 years earlier.) It's about several strangers whose lives intersect and are changed by a single journey. There's Myatt, a businessman, who does a kindness for chorus girl Coral when she falls ill. Coral feels obligated to sleep with him afterward, and they unconvincingly try to persuade themselves that they're in love, in order not to feel bad about this arrangement. Meanwhile Mabel, a journalist, recognizes Dr. Czinner, a Serbian dissident who has been living under a false identity in England and is now returning home. She's determined to get his story on the front page, no matter the cost to him. Czinner presses Coral to hide an incriminating letter for him; his callousness about endangering her makes it hard to sympathize with him. Finally, there's Josef, a burglar fleeing the scene of a murder he committed in Vienna. There are multiple reminders of the era when this was written. Although Myatt is portrayed sympathetically, I don't think we got a single sentence mentioning him without the word "Jew" in it, whether or not it was relevant. And Mabel is lesbian-coded. She's traveling with her "companion," Janet, and while it's unclear if their relationship is sexual, Mabel is obsessed with her. Mabel is short-haired and plain-looking, has a "man's job," and says more than once that she "hates men." Trigger warnings for violence, mention of rape, and anti-Semitism. Around the Year Challenge: Book with an Agatha Christie connection. (Final book for my 5 reading challenges this year!)
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