Murder on the Orient Express audiobook vs book: which should you choose?
Poirot investigates a murder among thirteen passengers on a snowbound train. Kenneth Branagh’s solo reading won an AudioFile Earphones Award, and an Audible drama gives every suspect a different actor.
Short answer: for the Murder on the Orient Express audiobook vs book choice, we say listen on Audible (65% confidence, leaning). We scored Kenneth Branagh’s solo reading for HarperCollins (2017), 6 hours 13 minutes. David Suchet reads the full text in 6h 49m, and the Audible drama led by Tom Conti (5h 47m) is a dramatisation and is not scored. AudioFile gave Branagh’s reading an Earphones Award, and nothing confirmed points to print.
Listen on Audible
The solo narration has won an award, and nothing confirmed points to print.
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Confidence 65%, which puts it in the leaning band. Bands run from close call at 50 to 64, through leaning at 65 to 79 and clear at 80 to 94, up to clear cut at 95 and above.
The audiobook at a glance
| Recording | UK edition, our verdict (Audible Original drama) | David Suchet, unabridged (UK) | Dan Stevens, unabridged (US lead) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narrator | Tom Conti (Poirot), Art Malik (narrator) and a cast of over 20 | David Suchet | Dan Stevens |
| Length | 5 hours 47 minutes (5h 47m) | 6 hours 49 minutes (6h 49m) | 6 hours 37 minutes (6h 37m) |
| At 1.5x | 3h 51m | 4h 33m | 4h 25m |
| At 2x | 2h 54m | 3h 25m | 3h 19m |
| Abridged or unabridged | Dramatised adaptation | Unabridged | Unabridged |
| Audio publisher and year | Audible Studios, 1 November 2017 | HarperCollins, 25 August 2006 | William Morrow, 10 September 2013 |
Also on sale: Kenneth Branagh’s unabridged reading (6h 13m, HarperCollins UK, 2017) and a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation with John Moffatt (2h 18m). We found no Hugh Fraser recording of this title on Audible.
Lengths checked 15 October 2026. Speed times are calculated from the listed length.
Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie
- Genre
- Classic crime
- Series
- Hercule Poirot, book 10
- Published
- 1934
- On audio
- Audible drama 5 hrs 47 mins; David Suchet, unabridged, 6 hrs 49 mins
- Poirot on audio
- Tom Conti (Audible drama)
- Award
- CAMEO Book to Audio Award 2018 (Audible drama)
- On screen
- Films in 1974 (Albert Finney) and 2017 (Kenneth Branagh)
On this page
Why we reached this verdict
Every book on this site is checked against the same thirteen questions. They are based on research into what most people find easier to follow in each format, not on whether the book is any good.
Listening: award-winning or praised narration (6), 6 points. Reading: nothing confirmed, 0 points. 100% of the confirmed points favour listening, so the verdict is listen on Audible at 65% confidence (leaning). Only 6 points could be confirmed, so confidence is held at 65% until more evidence is found.
The recording in detail
- Lead UK edition (a dramatisation, not the one we score)
- Audible Original drama, 1 November 2017
- Cast
- Tom Conti (Poirot) and Art Malik (narrator), with Sophie Okonedo, Jane Asher, Eddie Marsan and a cast of over 20
- Production
- Exclusive score, and sound effects recorded on the Orient Express
- Listener rating
- 4.5 from 4,468 ratings on Audible UK, as of October 2026
- What you miss
- Christie’s full text in the drama, the spelling of a large international cast, and any coach plan
What this book actually is
Murder on the Orient Express is the tenth Hercule Poirot novel, first published by Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. The current UK paperback is from HarperCollins (2013), and the book is still in copyright in the UK.
A train is stopped by snow, a passenger is found murdered, and Poirot has a carriage full of suspects and nowhere for any of them to go. The publisher says he puts forward two solutions; this page does not say which is right.
It came second in the 2015 vote for the World’s Favourite Christie, and has been filmed with Albert Finney (1974) and Kenneth Branagh (2017).
The case for reading it
The large cast of characters is the reason to read. Thirteen passengers plus Poirot, M. Bouc, the conductor and a doctor, from ten countries, is a lot of people for a short novel, and names like Dragomiroff, Andrenyi, Ohlsson and Foscarelli are easier to keep straight when you can see them. In print you can also turn back to check who was where, which is what a puzzle like this invites.
The layout of the train matters too. The Christie estate says Christie checked cabin layouts, door handles and light switches, and that these details are key to the solution. We could not confirm whether the UK paperback prints a plan of the coach; if it does, that is something only print can give you. And only print, or a full reading, gives you Christie’s own text rather than an adaptation.
The case for listening to it
AudioFile praised Kenneth Branagh’s warm narration and distinct voices, and his reading won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The lead UK audiobook goes further: it uses a cast of actors, which solves the problem of the many names. In Audible’s drama each passenger is played by a different actor, including Sophie Okonedo, Jane Asher and Eddie Marsan, with Tom Conti as Poirot and Art Malik narrating, so you know who is speaking by the voice. It has an exclusive score and sound effects recorded on the Orient Express, and it won the 2018 CAMEO Book to Audio Award.
The drama is also quick, at 5 hours 47 minutes, and a single murder on a stranded train keeps the story moving. If you would rather have every word Christie wrote, David Suchet, ITV’s Poirot, reads the full text in 6 hours 49 minutes, and Kenneth Branagh, who played Poirot in the 2017 film, reads it in 6 hours 13 minutes. His is the recording we score, because the drama is an adaptation.
The audiobook in detail
Audible Studios released the drama on 1 November 2017. It runs 5 hours 47 minutes: 3 hours 51 minutes at 1.5x and 2 hours 54 minutes at 2x. It is a dramatised adaptation, not the full text, and as of October 2026 it is the first audiobook UK buyers meet for this title on Audible, rated 4.5 from 4,468 ratings.
For the full text, David Suchet’s HarperCollins reading (25 August 2006) runs 6 hours 49 minutes and is rated 4.7 from 1,671 ratings on Audible UK. Kenneth Branagh’s reading (6 hours 13 minutes) came out on 19 October 2017. In the US the lead listing is Dan Stevens’s reading (6 hours 37 minutes, 4.7 from 13,853 ratings). A BBC Radio 4 dramatisation with John Moffatt runs 2 hours 18 minutes.
Who should ignore this verdict
Puzzle solvers who like to check alibis against a list of names may prefer print, where that is easier, especially if your edition has a plan of the coach. Anyone who wants Christie’s own words rather than an adaptation, who should pick David Suchet’s or Kenneth Branagh’s full reading. Listeners who find full-cast dramas busy and prefer a single narrator can choose one of the solo readings.
Read differently from most people? The app, coming soon, will let you switch off any of the thirteen checks. Get notified →
Related verdicts
Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel
A mystery with a multicast recording, where either format works.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Poirot at Christmas: a locked-room murder, a close call for audio.
Frankenstein
Read by Dan Stevens, who also reads Orient Express in the US. It has a Read verdict.
Start hereHow we decide
The thirteen questions behind every verdict on this site.
Questions people ask
Who narrates the Murder on the Orient Express audiobook?
The lead Audible UK version is a full-cast drama with Tom Conti as Poirot and Art Malik as narrator. David Suchet, Kenneth Branagh and Dan Stevens read unabridged versions.
How long is the Murder on the Orient Express audiobook?
The Audible drama is 5 hours 47 minutes, about 2h 54m at 2x. David Suchet’s unabridged reading is 6 hours 49 minutes, about 3h 25m at 2x (calculated).
Is the Murder on the Orient Express audiobook abridged?
The Suchet, Branagh and Stevens readings are unabridged. The Audible and BBC versions are dramatised adaptations.
Should I read or listen to Murder on the Orient Express?
Listen on our checks (65% confidence, leaning). Kenneth Branagh’s solo reading won an AudioFile Earphones Award, and nothing confirmed points to print.
Does Kenneth Branagh narrate Murder on the Orient Express?
Yes. His unabridged reading runs 6 hours 13 minutes and came out in 2017, alongside his film.
Which Poirot book is Murder on the Orient Express?
It is the tenth Hercule Poirot novel, first published in 1934.
Do you agree with this verdict?
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How this verdict was reached
Every book on this site is checked against the same thirteen questions, set in advance and applied identically to every title. They are based on research into what readers and listeners generally find easier to follow in each format, not on personal preference, and they are published in full so you can check the reasoning yourself. Verdicts are never paid for, sponsored or influenced by affiliate partners.
- The criteria: read the thirteen questions in full.
- What we checked for this book: the Audible Studios, HarperCollins and William Morrow listings on Audible UK and Audible US, the CAMEO award results, AudioFile’s review of the drama, the Christie estate on the book’s setting, and HarperCollins UK and Harper US edition details.
- Verdict last reviewed: 23 October 2026. Editions and narrators change, so verdicts are rechecked annually.
- Prefer different criteria? The app, coming soon, will let you change which of the thirteen questions matter to you.
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