From the Vault: "The A.B.C. Murders"

Serial Killer mysteries are a dime a dozen these days, including books that try to take us deep into the psychotic minds of such killers. Novels like this were anything but common in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, but there were a few outstanding examples by some of the leading mystery authors. Agatha Christie's book, The A.B.C. Murders, deals with a serial killer - but it's an Agatha Christie book. The reader is warned.

Here's my podcast review from nearly a decade ago, slightly edited - and, I see, I had a few choice remarks to make about one of her regular characters. Ah, youthful enthusiasm!.

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Let’s start by agreeing that, with Agatha Christie, it is usually a mistake to allow yourself to be lulled by appearances. There are invariably tricks up the author’s sleeve. Nevertheless, The A.B.C. Murders, which dates from 1936, is, I think, a very successful novel. It features Hercule Poirot, who finds himself on the receiving end of a series of letters from someone who signs them as A.B.C. The letters, meant to taunt Poirot, challenge him to prevent the murder of an unknown someone in a given town on a given date – the towns advancing in alphabetical order, from Andover, to Bexhill, to Churston. And, as the victims pile up, we find that their initials match those of the town – Alice Ascher in Andover, Betty Barnard in Bexhill, and so on.

Poirot is, of course, stymied – at least at first – and the police can provide little help in identifying the killer, much less in stopping the person. But Poirot, always looking for logic where others see only confusion, refuses to be rushed or panicked and, of course, eventually manages to make sense out of the events.

The ABC Murders is noteworthy as well for the presence of one of my least favorite characters in the Christie mysteries – Captain Arthur Hastings, who functions as the amazingly dim-witted Watson for Poirot. That’s actually something of an insult to Dr. Watson, whose observation skills may have been minimal but who at least appeared to be fairly intelligent. Even Poirot notes – with apparent affection – that Hastings tends to observe all the wrong things and to come to blindingly obvious – if frequently wrong – conclusions. It is true in virtually every Poirot novel in which Hastings appears: if he is moved to sympathy for a character, or finds someone to admire and follow, that person will almost always turn out to be concealing something – Hastings will, once again, have leapt to the wrong conclusion.

And yet it is Hastings, with his flair for the obvious, who will be credited by Poirot with providing the clue needed to understand, and so solve, the ABC murders. For as the bodies pile up, and Poirot and the authorities find themselves frustrated by a series of problems, it is one of Hastings’s observations that turns out to be a significant clue. It is Agatha Christie’s genius that she manages to fool the reader – we become so accustomed to greeting each Hastings observation as another exercise in misguided fatuity that when he DOES make a valid observation, we tend to ignore it.

The ABC Murders is also unusual in its choice of narrative voice. Usually, in the books featuring Hastings writing in the first person about his adventures, all the action is seen through the eyes of Hastings as narrator. But in The ABC Murders, there are some very significant chapters which are written in the third person, giving some insight into the frame of mind of other key characters. Hastings explains that, as he himself was not present at the scenes described in those chapters, he has taken the liberty of writing them in the third person.

It is an interesting variation on Christie’s usual technique – and I think it is quite successful, both in providing insight into some very important characters – and, of course, in helping to pull the wool over the reader’s eyes. Rest assured, this is an Agatha Christie novel. She generally plays fair with us, providing the clues. But she does use a pretty ripe collection of red herrings to throw us off the track. By the time we reach the solution, I suspect most readers will have gathered that there is considerably more going on here than meets the eye, but I doubt that most readers will be able to solve the mystery before Poirot does.

As I said earlier, The ABC Murders dates from 1936. Some of its plot twists have been used and reused in other mysteries since then; there have been other stories about serial killers that rely on similar motives and plot developments. But I do think that The ABC Murders is one of Agatha Christie’s most successful and entertaining stories. As is true of most of her other books, The ABC Murders remains in print, and it is readily available through your favorite mystery bookseller. Enjoy it. But if your first and last names begin with the same letter as the name of your town, this book might persuade you to think about moving.

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 You can listen to the original podcast by clicking here.

"From the Vault" will be taking a short break while I do some traveling. The feature will be back on June 1, leading off with Miracle Mile, by Margery Allingham.

Comments

[D]

Oh, this is one of my top Christies, Les! She does such a good job with the various characters here, I think. And the plot is quite clever.

[Les Blatt]

Yes, it's been one of my favorites for a long time too. And I agree about the characterizations - very well done indeed.

[Barry Ergang]

The first Christie novel I ever read, probably when I was around 12, having previously read some of the stories in THE LABORS OF HERCULES, and liked a great deal. Fifty-eight years later I still remember whodunit.

[Les Blatt]

It's one of the things I enjoy about Christie, Barry - the fact that some of her books are memorable, usually because of the twists and turns she has put in to misdirect the reader. That's the case for me in this one. (Although "The Labors of Hercules" is also a very good starting place for a new Christie reader, come to think of it... :-)