The A.B.C. Murders
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Cover artist | Not known |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
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Publication date
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6 January 1936 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 256 first edition, hardback |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Death in the Clouds |
| Followed by | Murder in Mesopotamia |
The A.B.C. Murders is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 January 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company on 14 February of the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
The book features the characters of Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp. The form of the novel is unusual, combining first- and third-person narrative. This approach was famously pioneered by Charles Dickens in Bleak House, and was tried by Agatha Christie in The Man in the Brown Suit. What is unusual in The A.B.C. Murders is that the third-person narrative is supposedly reconstructed by the first-person narrator, Hastings. This approach shows Christie's commitment to experimenting with point of view, famously exemplified by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
The novel was well received in the UK and the US when it was published. One reviewer said it was "a baffler of the first water," while another remarked on Christie's ingenuity in the plot. A reviewer in 1990 said it was "A classic, still fresh story, beautifully worked out."
The novel follows the eponymous murders and their investigation as seen by Arthur Hastings, Poirot's old friend. Poirot receives typed letters signed by A.B.C.. In each is given the date and location of the next murder. A.B.C. moves alphabetically: Alice Ascher is a tobacco shop owner killed in her shop in Andover, Betty Barnard is a flirty waitress killed in Bexhill, and Sir Carmichael Clarke is a wealthy man killed at his home in Churston. A.B.C. leaves an ABC railway guide with each victim. Poirot has two doubts in his mind: a) Why would A.B.C. write to him instead of the Scotland Yard or any reputed newspaper?, and b) Why did a meticulous man like A.B.C. misspell Poirot's address on the Churston letter?
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