In this extract from the novel, Hercule Poirot has received a mysterious letter from A B C., but the police cannot see any relevancy in the letter, which warns of an incident in Andover on the 21st of the month.

Taken from Chapter 3, Andover

Poirot looked at me sadly.
‘You have made there a very pretty résumé of nearly all
the detective stories that have ever been written.’
‘Well,’ I said. ‘What would you order?’
Poirot closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. His
voice came purringly from between his lips.
‘A very simple crime. A crime with no complications.
A crime of quiet domestic life…very unimpassioned—very
intime.’
‘How can a crime be intime?’
‘Supposing,’ murmured Poirot, ‘that four people sit down
to play bridge and one, the odd man out, sits in a chair by
the fire. At the end of the evening the man by the fire is
found dead. One of the four, while he is dummy, has gone
over and killed him, and intent on the play of the hand, the
other three have not noticed. Ah, there would be a crime
for you! Which of the four was it?’
‘Well,’ I said. ‘I can’t see any excitement in that!’
Poirot threw me a glance of reproof.
‘No, because there are no curiously twisted daggers, no
blackmail, no emerald that is the stolen eye of a god, no
untraceable Eastern poisons. You have the melodramatic
soul, Hastings. You would like, not one murder, but a
series of murders.’
‘I admit,’ I said, ‘that a second murder in a book often
cheers things up. If the murder happens in the first chapter,
and you have to follow up everybody’s alibi until the last
page but one—well, it does get a bit tedious.’
The telephone rang and Poirot rose to answer.
‘’Allo,’ he said. ‘’Allo. Yes, it is Hercule Poirot speaking.’
He listened for a minute or two and then I saw his face
change.
His own side of the conversation was short and disjointed.
‘Mais oui…’
‘Yes, of course…’
‘But yes, we will come…’
‘Naturally…’
‘It may be as you say…’
‘Yes, I will bring it. A tout à l’heure then.’
He replaced the receiver and came across the room to me.
‘That was Japp speaking, Hastings.’
‘Yes?’
‘He had just got back to the Yard. There was a message
from Andover…’
‘Andover?’ I cried excitedly.
Poirot said slowly:
‘An old woman of the name of Ascher who keeps a little
tobacco and newspaper shop has been found murdered.’
I think I felt ever so slightly damped. My interest, quickened
by the sound of Andover, suffered a faint check. I had
expected something fantastic—out of the way! The murder
of an old woman who kept a little tobacco shop seemed,
somehow, sordid and uninteresting.
Poirot continued in the same slow, grave voice:
‘The Andover police believe they can put their hand on
the man who did it—’
I felt a second throb of disappointment.
‘It seems the woman was on bad terms with her husband.
He drinks and is by way of being rather a nasty customer.
He’s threatened to take her life more than once.
‘Nevertheless,’ continued Poirot, ‘in view of what has
happened, the police there would like to have another look
at the anonymous letter I received. I have said that you and
I will go down to Andover at once.’
My spirits revived a little. After all, sordid as this crime
seemed to be, it was a crime, and it was a long time since
I had had any association with crime and criminals.
I hardly listened to the next words Poirot said. But they
were to come back to me with significance later.
‘This is the beginning,’ said Hercule Poirot.

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders. By Artefacts Studio. Walkthrough by MaGtRo 2016. Gameplay: This is a point and click third person game. At start of game, make a profile. It is one out of 3 profiles available. The main menu has play, bonuses, options, profiles and quit. Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders game guide contains lot of tips useful during this pleasant and climatic adventure which is based on a novel of very well-known writer. John Malkovich takes a crack at Agatha Christie in Amazon's The ABC Murders trailer Entertainment Weekly via Yahoo News 2 years ago. Kenneth Branagh can’t have all the fun. A couple of Harry Potter veterans join the fray, Rupert. J – Japp was played by Philip Jackson in the Agatha Christie's Poirot TV adaptation and the BBC radio adaptation of The ABC Murders. K – Killers with multiple victims, such as A B C., are today known as 'serial killers,' but that term wasn't yet created when Christie published her book in 1936.

edited January 2014 in All stories

A is for Mrs. Ascher – fatally attacked in Andover. B is for Betty Barnard – strangled on the beach in Bexhill. C is for Sir Carmichael Clarke – now a corpse in Churston. If nothing else, the murderer knew is ABCs. But the alphabetical assassin would need to know more that that to outwit the world’s cleverest detective…Hercule Poirot!

This is another Agatha Christie story I have read, although I am familiar with the Hercule Poirot series on television. This was also my first foray into this genre; most “mysteries” I have read are actually gory crime thrillers. It was refreshing to have a main character, the dapper Poirot, instead of some gritty detective with emotional problems. Poirot is brilliant, polished, and funny. He’s even well-adjusted. I also appreciated the fact that the story was told from the perspective of Poirot’s friend, Captain Hastings, meaning that I was left out of Poirot’s thought-processes, so every twist and turn was a surprise.

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The story starts out with the arrival of a teasing letter at Poirot’s home. It warns of something happening in Andover on a specific day. When Alice Ascher is found dead, it’s obvious that the murderer is engaged in a lethal game with Poirot. The cast of characters keeps expanding as more murders occur, including family members and distraught boyfriends. Although everyone is a suspect, there are mysterious chapters interspersed throughout the book that feature a strange man named Alexander Bonaparte Cust…A.B.C. Who is this man? What is his connection to the murders?

Agatha Christie's Poirot

As the police are scrambling to try to find A.B.C. and to prevent these murders from happening on their appointed days, Poirot is using all his mental powers to try and figure out why these murders are happening. Even when it seems that the case is all locked up, Poirot still tries to understand the underlying reasons behind the crimes. It is this reason that finally blows the case wide open and provides a stunning twist at the end.

This book is a classic of Christie’s and really demonstrates her skills as the premier mystery writer. It will obviously appeal to all mystery fiction fans, but also to anyone who is curious about this classic genre. I am looking forward to reading more of Christie’s books, and especially those featuring this comically brilliant detective.

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Comments

Agatha Christie Abc Murders Plot

ABC Murders as a Briliant book and shows how Agatha Christie wrote Brilliantly from such a simple Idea namely the Alphabet, she was excellent at using any little thing like The Labours of Hercules and Rhymes such as Mrs McGinty's Dead although she didn't use Hickory Dickory Dock, One Two Buckle My Shoe and Five Little Pigs Brilliantly and her use of Shakespeare, Omar Khyam and Tennyson, There is a Line from Shakespeare which if I remember writely goes, There is something nasty in the Woodshed and ABC Murders and many Other Books suit this line Brilliantly.
I love the fact Hastings and Japp are in this one, This as near to a Perfect book as possible, Reading it made me want to buy the Adaptation on Video, The Changes are Unnecessary but harmless and don't do harm to the Book, I have read it 6 times and look forward to a Seventh.
I still think out of all the murder methods in her books, this is the one, that might work in really life. Hopefully, noone decides to copy it. ;-)
It's the easiest Idea, a How to Manual if you like, The Boo

Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders Crack