It is narrated by Henry Pulling - a retired bank manager who has led a very quiet, very sheltered life. he meets his aunt at (what he believes to be) his mother's funeral and a short while later finds himself travelling on the Orient Express with her. His Aunt Agatha is the polar opposite of Henry and is full of improbable stories of her long, eventful and risque life.
Henry is a perfect narrator - he is a boring but endearing man, and reminds me a little of Mr Hastings in Poirot novels, slower and more innocent than the reader but he works well coupled with the other characters and the plot. The novel has something to say as well as being funny and silly. Greene is showing a man who has coasted through life and not experienced anything, never travelled, never married. Pulling gradually loosens up and starts to enjoy himself (though is just as stoic) so the novel seems a sort of warning - though is never overt or preachy - to never avoid adventure, or to seek it out.
I have also just finished Death of an Outsider by M.C. Beaton (guilty pleasure!)
