The ABC Murders
A true mystery takes time to unravel. If you introduce an idea as difficult to discern and then it is swiftly decoded, it makes us question whether it was really a mystery at all. But although The ABC Murders is one of Christie’s shorter Poirot novels, it manages to explore a robust story. The opening gives us a glance at Hercule Poirot’s daily life, before it is abruptly interrupted by an ominous letter.
It states that the writer of the letter will murder a person, and it gives the location where the murder takes place, before taunting Poirot and telling him he cannot solve it. However, that jibe is his downfall, as Poirot is dedicated to both solving the mystery and restoring his fame.
Upon arrival in the town where the murder took place, there is very little evidence to be had. No witnesses of the crime or the criminal at all, with no evidence left behind to incriminate anyone in particular. This is where the novel's genius kicks in. Normally, in a literary device called dramatic irony, the reader is made privy to information the characters are not, allowing the reader to speculate on how it will be revealed. But though the novel ostensibly does give the reader more information in the form of the killer’s perspective in a hotel room, in reality, the only information that can be gleaned from this section of the book is misleading. Poirot himself is also concealing important information from the reader, information that he realizes very early in the novel, right after this first murder. The rest of the novel takes place across three more settings, each with its own effective sideplots, all the while the reader wonders what Poirot is getting at with the questions he poses.
The Chase Verdict is that The ABC Murders is a compact novel exploring the vileness of human nature that can justify the killing of multiple people, and it perfectly demonstrates Poirot’s charm, making him such a dynamic sleuth. This novel is a good first pick for a Hercule Poirot mystery and is an engaging read from cover to cover.