"The ABC Murders" Book Review

"The ABC Murders" Book Review

　　　I read a book called “The ABC Murders,” which was written by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie was born on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devon, England. After she married Colonel Archibald Christie in 1914, she began to write a novel and published her mystery novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She continued writing other books because her first mystery book became popular. She enjoyed the rest of her life because her book, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)” became a bestseller. However, she disappeared for 11 days after she divorced from her first husband. In 1930, she married another man, an archeologist Sir Max Mallowan. She created her favorite detective character Miss Marple. Furthermore, she wrote 131 other books by using her favorite pen name, “Mary Westmacott'' and unfortunately passed away on January 12, 1976.

　　　Belgian detective Hercule Poirot received a letter written to watch out for Andover on the 21st of the month and signed ‘ABC.’ He called Captain Arthur Hastings and showed this letter. Some days later, Poirot heard an old man, Ascher, had been murdered in her shop in Andover after receiving a phone call from the police. Poirot and Hastings visit the police doctor because they want to see Mary Drower to hear more details about the crime. Poirot and Hastings searched a place and found a pair of new stockings. Then they returned to London and Poirot got another letter which warned him to be careful of what happens next. On the beach at Bexhill, a man named Barnard is found dead. They learned that she was meeting with a man, who is probably her male friend, on the night of the murder. A few days later, Poirot again received a letter, which was the third time, announcing the next crime in Churston. After Poirot and Hastings heard a man named Sir Carmichael Clarke had been found dead, they and a police inspector went to the train station to go to a crime scene. They met a man named Franklin Clarke, Sir Carmichael Clarke’s brother after they arrived in Churston. Back in London, Donald Fraser visited Poirot to tell him he was having dreams about killing Megan. Then the fourth letter arrives, announcing in Doncaster on the 11th, the next victim will get murdered. Poirot interviewed Cust to let him confess to the murders. In addition, Poirot called a meeting of the Special Legion to announce that Franklin Clarke was the real culprit. Franklin told Cust to get arranged, staying at the scene of each crime, and Franklin murdered all the victims.

　　　This book has more negative points than positive points. First, let’s start from the positive points. First of all, The ABC Murders has unique names. Agatha Christie wrote brilliantly from such a simple idea, namely the Alphabet, she was excellent at using any little thing. I think this is the only book that has alphabetical order names. Second of all, there is nothing in the book about motive and how Franklin killed people. Guessing these two important pieces of evidence will make the book interesting and hard to guess what Franklin thinks. Almost all of the mysterious books have the culprit’s motive and the technique of killing people. Therefore, this book has a special part to make the book interesting. On the other hand, there are some negative points about The ABC Murders. First of all, this book is so hard to read. The mysterious events are interesting to read, however, it is hard to guess and understand the reason. For example, I still could not understand the reason why the final culprit was Franklin. The main character, Poirot, figured out that the final culprit is Franklin from three crimes. I understood until the second crime, but it is so hard to connect to the final culprit, Franklin. Franklin is Carmichael Clarke’s brother. I understood why he murdered his younger sister, however, I cannot see why he had to kill 2 other people. Second of all, this book is too shallow. I believe it is hard to understand each crime because there is not enough information about each crime, especially the first crime. I think adding more useful information will make it easier to understand the reason and guess the culprit each time. For example, if I was Agatha Christie, I would like to make the first crime deeply.

　　　In conclusion, I do not recommend this book to people who dislike using their brains to infer. I believe this book is for people who like mysterious books and want to try reading a challenging book because it is so hard to guess and understand the reason from a few details. I will not say “Please, avoid this book” because even though this book is hard, it is possible to understand the contents. For instance, I believe almost all people can understand why Franklin murdered his brother. On the other hand, this book still has a few positive points. I believe if you read this book, you will find it easy to infer some other crimes, such as police dramas. This will make you enjoy police dramas more.

References:

“The ABC Murders.” MAFIADOC, PENGUIN ACTIVE READING Teacher Support Programme, 2010,

https://moam.info/the-abc-murders_598a659d1723ddd269e53a9d.html

“Agatha Christie Is Born.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009,

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/agatha-christie-is-born