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 Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition | |
| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Not known |
| Series | Hercule Poirot |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
Publication date | 6 January 1936 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 256 (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 978-1-57912-624-7 |
| Preceded by | Death in the Clouds |
| Followed by | Murder in Mesopotamia |
The A.B.C. Murders is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, featuring her characters Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp, as they contend with a series of killings by a mysterious murderer known only as "A.B.C.". The book was first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 January 1936,[1] sold for seven shillings and sixpence (7/6)[2] while a US edition, published by Dodd, Mead and Company on 14 February of the same year, was priced $2.00.[3]
The form of the novel is unusual, combining first-person narrative and third-person narrative. This approach was previously used by Agatha Christie in The Man in the Brown Suit. In The A.B.C. Murders the third-person narrative is supposedly reconstructed by the first-person narrator of the story, Arthur Hastings.
The initial premise is that a serial killer is murdering people with alliterative names. The murders follow an alphabetical order, starting with a victim whose initials were A. A, and appear to lack a motive.
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",[4] while another remarked on Christie's ingenuity in the plot.[5] A reviewer in 1990 said it was "a classic, still fresh story, beautifully worked out".[6]
- ^ The Observer, 29 December 1935 (p. 6)
- ^ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (p. 15)
- ^ "The Classic Years: 1935 – 1939". American Tribute to Agatha Christie. May 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
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