The ABC Murders

by Agatha Christie

After reading the "new" book about Poirot I thought I should read an actual book by Agatha Chrisite.

This book starts with Poirot, who is retired and trying to relax in London, receiving a letter announcing an upcoming murder in Andover. An elderly woman, owner of a newspaper shop is murdered in the town.  Her last name begins with an A.  No one was seen committing the crime.  Then a second letter arrives announcing a murder in Bexhill and a young woman, with the last name starting with a B is strangled.  Then a Sir Clarke is killed in Churston. The police and Poirot are frustrated.  How can they catch/stop this serial killer.  The only chance might be for him to make a mistake.

We are later introduced to a lonely young man.  He reads the news and finds blood on his sleeve after he was in the location of one of the murders and he has lady's silk stockings in his possession.  This is something that seems to tie all the murders together.

Poirot works with the local police.  He is not as condescending to the police as he is in the recently written Christie-like mystery.
He eventually figures out that the brother of the third victim is indeed the serial killer.  He planned and carried out all the other murders to take attention away from himself in regards to his brother's murder.   The man also setup the young loner, hiring him to sell the stockings and making sure he was in the towns where the murders were committed. The young man became convinced that he could have carried out the crimes.

It was an interesting story, the plot twist with the young loner was an interesting aspect.  I was really impressed with how sophisticated Christy's analysis of the mind of the serial killer was.   It was not something I would have expected.

I will certainly look forward to reading more of her books.  They are truly classics and stand up well even today against current mysteries.