The A.B.C. Murders
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The A.B.C. Murders (published in 1936) is a detective novel by Agatha Christie featuring Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp.
A serial killer is murdering apparently random people in order of their names: first Alice Ascher of Andover, second Betty Barnard of Bexhill, third Sir Carmichael Clarke of Churston, and so on. At the place of each murder, an ABC railway guide is placed next to the dead body. Letters are sent to Poirot that tell him where and when each murder will take place, but Poirot always arrives too late. The killer who refers to himself as ABC appears to be winning until Alexander Bonaparte Cust walks into a police station and surrenders. The case is seemingly closed, but Poirot is baffled to hear that although Cust believes that he committed the crimes, (due to the insurmountable evidence against him) he doesn't know why and inexplicably, he doesn't remember committing them at all, and he has no idea who Poirot even is. However, the "surprise-ending" (also known as a twist), states that Sir Carmichael Clarke's brother, Frank Clarke, killed his Mrs. Ascher in Andover, Betty Barnard at Bexhill, and leading up to the death of his brother, Carmichael. He sent the forewarnings of the crimes to Hercule Poirot to have them mislead the British police, as Captain Hastings pointed out earlier.
Trivia
In the third chapter, Poirot lays out the plot of what he considers a perfect crime, a crime so challenging that 'even he' would find it hard to solve. This would later come to be a novel of its own: Cards on the Table.
Film versions
Adapted in 1966 as The Alphabet Murders starring Tony Randall, and in 1992 with David Suchet.
External links
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