The Paris AtlasCharting the artists, works, and places worth returning to.

A character in Murder on the Orient Express

Dr Constantine

The Greek doctor from the Athens coach who examines the body and cannot make the wounds agree.

What they want

To find the explanation that fits the wounds, and to be there when Poirot does.

The book

Murder on the Orient ExpressAgatha Christie, 1934

A snowbound train, a dead American with twelve stab wounds, and a carriage full of strangers who all have an alibi.

View the book

At a glance

In the book
Doctor, travelling in the Athens coach
Where he appears
Part One, chapter 7 onward

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Dr Constantine is the book's expert witness and its second listener. He gives Poirot the medical facts, the twelve wounds and their contradictions, and then sits with Bouc through the interviews, trying and failing to reason like the detective. His honest confusion is what makes the clue of the wounds fair: he sees what the reader sees and cannot explain it either.

How Dr Constantine Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The reportTwelve wounds, some deep, some shallow, two after death, some left-handed; he offers two murderers and admits it does not work.
  • The timeHe puts death between midnight and two, and the watch says a quarter past one.
  • The listeningHe and Bouc try Poirot's method of sitting back and thinking, and produce nothing.
  • The voteIn the last chapter he agrees with Bouc that the first solution is the one to give the police.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

The wounds did not agree because twelve different people made them. Constantine's second-murderer theory was closer than anybody's, short by ten.

If you like Murder on the Orient Express

Four books that share themes, tone, or setting with this one.

If you like Agatha Christie

Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.

  • Illustrated portrait of Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    Louis-Ferdinand Céline

    The doctor of the Paris slums who wrote the century's blackest, funniest novel — and changed the sound of French prose.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Simone de Beauvoir

    Simone de Beauvoir

    French writer and philosopher whose novels, memoirs, and social analysis examined freedom, gender, responsibility, aging, and the material conditions that shape a life.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Henry Miller

    Henry Miller

    The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.

    View author
Back to Murder on the Orient Express