A Writers View

There is nothing quite so enjoyable as a good mystery.  Make that mystery a murder mystery and baby you’re really cooking with gas now!  There are arguably none that weave an intriguing web better than the late, the renowned, the respected Mrs. Agatha Christie.  She most certainly has that market cornered, bought and paid for complete with a little white picket fence and everything.

Whether you’re new to her novels or simply looking for a good re-read ABC Murder will satiate that detective’s palate of yours. 

It begins innocently, or should that be ominously enough, with our famed little mustachioed detective Monsieur Poirot receiving a fearsome correspondence.  One that promises that it’s writer, an enigmatic ABC, is up to grade-A-no-do-goodery.  And sure enough not too much later someone winds up dead.  A Mrs. A., in such-and-sucha town starting with A.  It could be a coincidence… sure… until a second letter is received… and a Miss B., in a different such-and-sucha town that starts with B, pops up dead a month later.  It’s a race against time to unmask and catch the killer before he or she reaches victim Z.

Christie does a magnificent job of plopping you down right smack dab into the middle of the emotional turmoil of each and every character, be they a victim, a relative, a detective or the murderer himself.  The book is made all the more horrifying when the modern reader is forced to realize that back at the time of its writing ‘serial killers’ were not so prevalent, and in fact, weren’t even really a thing at all.  Add to that the seemingly unconnected randomness of the victims and the alluded mental illness of the killer and you’ve got a really truly disturbing story.

But fret not.  This is not a horror story.  It is a detective novel.  And as such, there is a conclusion – and it is a satisfying one.  Without giving too much away, I’ll just say, “Ah, I see.  Of course.  It makes perfect sense. ”

What I really love about all of Agatha Christie’s novels is that they’re people books.  She doesn’t muck about with creating characters that are unrealistic.  She goes with the stereotypes, with the expected, with the corniness, and it is amongst these very commonplace characters, settings, and routines that the reader gets fooled into missing the murderer themselves.  Until Monsieur Poirot or another detective unveils them. 

I would definitely recommend this book.  Maybe not as a first foray into the works of Agatha Christie, for that I would have to recommend my own first which was And Then There Were None.  But as a first Poirot novel, it would do just fine. 

That’s the other thing about her books that I love – you can start anywhere and not feel lost. 

Each book is its own case and its own complete story, and there is just enough ambiguity about the genius detective throughout all of them to make the reader feel like they know him, while really not knowing much about him at all.  The little crumbs of his past that one does receive only serve to make the mysteries deeper and richer.

Comment below if you would like me to make a complete SPOILER-FILLED Review, where I would go into all the details of the book, including the identity of the killer.

Until next time, Ciao Bellas!