While this is not turned on its head in this piece, there is a degree of testing the man’s mettle by developing a strong game of cat and mouse in this story.

A strong narrative with some interesting twists embedded in the telling, Christie delivers just at the right time to keep the reader wanting more.Īs I have said many times before, Poirot is a great detective, but the reader learns little about him as a person or his life throughout these novels. This was a great one that had all the elements of a successful story and keeps the reader engaged until the very end, with a most mysterious murderer on the loose. Christie pushes her protagonist to the limit with this one, perhaps the most challenging piece to date.Īgatha Christie has rarely disappointed in the Poirot series, though her stories can sometimes ebb and flow as the novels pile up. Twenty-six potential victims is too many and with four already complete, it will be a bloody mess should Poirot not clue in soon. Still, there must be a connection to the victims, the locales, and the killer, even if Poirot cannot connect the dots.

More mocking letters arrive, but no clues accompany them, leaving the Belgian to grasp at straws. While Hastings watches his friend work, he cannot help but wonder if Poirot has met his match.Īfter another murder, the police remain on edge and Poirot is stymied. Poirot is baffled and wonders if this will continue throughout the entire alphabet. While it is a while after Alice Asher, another body emerges with the same ABC guide next to it, similar alliteration accompanying the murder scene. Poirot and Hastings can only wonder if there is more to come and how they will track this killer down. At the scene is an ABC Railway Guide, as if it is a clue to the foreboding letter. Intrigued, Poirot waits and soon a report that Alice Asher has been bludgeoned in Andover comes across the wire. The letter states that there will be a murder in the coming days and signs it with the elusive ‘A.B.C.’. Some call it Christie’s best work and I would say it is one of the best I have read to date!Īfter Arthur Hastings returns to see his longtime friend, Hercule Poirot, the retired detective gets a letter in the post from a mysterious individual. The story takes many twists and keeps the reader enthralled until the very end, as Poirot is up against his most dashing criminal yet in a piece that offers no reprieve from the action. Agatha Christie pens perhaps one of her most exciting pieces yet with this story, tossing Hercule Poirot into the middle of an investigation with a serial killer on the loose.

The abc murders by agatha christie