Never lets me down

The final one in the series is a tried and tested favourite and she never lets me down!


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The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
I always get a happy feeling when I open up a Christie book. I know the chances of her letting me down are minimal.
In this one Mr Poirot is being sent letters that very kindly announce exactly when murders are about to take place. They also challenge him to find the killer and to stop him if he can. Although Mr Poirot does not seem to be doing a lot of active detective work (to the despair of his sidekick Captain Hastings) we can be sure that the little grey cells are working hard in the background.
Apart from a nice killer who announces his work we also have a killer presented on a plate with a cherry on top.... and there is no way that the man presented is the man committing the murders. Oh... don't get me wrong, he looks good for it but the whole thing just does not feel right. In the end the reader is vindicated and the real killer is revealed but this is not after we have had a few red herrings and some clever showing off from Poirot.
The good thing about this one is that we are told the murders are connected but seem really random. There seem to be no links between the victims although Christie drops a few plausible possible ones here and there but it all seems to be left to fizzle out and lead to nothing. The first two murders are women, the next two are men. There seems to be a suggestion of the women having violent partners but then the men killed seem "normal" enough and not violent or linked by business deals, profession or anything else... other than the fact that their names follow the ABC pattern. This time around we have a hot shot investigator cop on the case, Crome. He seems to be busy trying to make a bit of a name for himself and sometimes thinks that Poirot is more of a hindrance than a valued contributor. However, Poirot is part of the team set up to investigate the murders and to not getting through the entire alphabet so Crome has to put up with him. More help comes from what I would like to call the united front of victims. Family members and friends of the deceased have come together with the aid of Poirot to see if between them they can figure out who the killer is. As Poirot says, people always know more than they think they do and by talking it out the group seems to make some kind of slow progress. They meet several times to see what they know and seem to be on the trail of the killer at one point. But, alas it is all to no avail in the end as when we actually find out who the killer is it is a delicious surprise. I would never have got it right as it is someone totally unexpected... but it works! The reasoning behind the killing is, as always personal gain but the length the killer has gone through to get what he wants is awesome. He has put himself in a very mice position to be able to influence and guide the investigation along and seems to be a master at misdirection.
As usual Christie delivers a delicious story that very pleasantly meanders to the right conclusions. It is especially fun to see Hastings' frustration with Poirot not seeming to do anything. However much the cops seems to be doing they are not really getting to the answers any quicker than Poirot from the comfort of his armchair and that kind of makes me chuckle. The whole story is nicely put together and the characters have some body to them. All in all a very pleasant Christie novel.


Title: The ABC Murders
Author: Agatha Christie
331 pages
Harper
ISBN# 978-0-00-781557-9