In the fifth set of the Poirot murder mysteries, the Belgian detective Hercules Poirot (David Suchet) spends a sufficient amount of time traveling abroad, as in two of the three stories he finds himself outside of his native haunts. Here, he tackles one of Agatha Christie's more famous works, The Murder on the Orient Express; one of the lesser known works, Third Girl; and a moderately well-known mystery, Appointment With Death. Each of the stories stands alone but the cleverness of Christie shines through thanks to the considerable talents of Suchet who is a fan favorite. While a few other actors (Peter Ustinov, Alfred Molina, Albert Finney) have all played the mystery solver, the truth is that this is Suchet's Poirot at the top of his game.

In the first film shown on PBS' Masterpiece Theater (July 11th), Poirot attempts to travel home comfortably on the Orient Express, only to find himself deep in a murder case where everyone seems to be a suspect because more than ten of the travelers had reason to kill the deceased. Without getting too deep into the story for those who've never read or seen Murder on the Orient Express, it's sufficient to say that the moral of the story lies in society's ability to right itself, to institute justice, even when the order of society seems blind to what real justice is. There are significant opportunities for one or another of the characters to choose violence to solve the problem, or to allow the wrong to go "unrighted," and the audience will find itself forced to consider those decisions in their own minds.

In the second feature, Third Girl, Poirot is enlisted to help out a woman who may or may not have killed someone, but who is terrified that she has. The story develops around a conspiracy, greed, murder, and mistaken identities, but of course, it's not enough to match the powers of our dear detective's deductive reasoning. While this one doesn't get as much love from the critics (in book form), it's still fun to see Suchet's earnestness in knocking some criminals down a few rungs. I don't know that it's as good as the other two, but fans of the actor will have fun with this one. And here, Christie via Poirot forces us into looking at how our mind works and how we are manipulated by thoughts and concepts outside of ourselves. The truth is manipulated by people who hope to gain from these lies, and only Poirot's quick thinking and effort deduce the truth behind the control.

Finally, in beautiful Syria, Poirot goes up against a murderous plan which results in the death of an abusive and powerful lady whose archaeological husband (Tim Curry) is hot on the trail of something big. This one finds Poirot back in the "justice" department, exploring why so many people would want this woman dead, and why some people might even call it just. Relationships are trying at times, difficult even, and the realm of family becomes a treacherous one for Poirot to travel. We're left wondering how we might consider those around us who are hurting because of their pasts, and what we can do to help them work through that pain and disillusionment with family.

None of us is quite ourselves: we're all meant for something greater than the little way we see ourselves. And we'll never quite work our way to a fuller, happier life until we accept our paths and face our pain. Each of the people that Poirot encounters has to find a way to work through it, and some of them choose vengeance and murder, which doesn't usually work out too well for them... or us, when we go down the road that leads to more pain and hurt.