The A.B.C. Murders

This article is about the novel. For the South African serial murders, see Moses Sithole. For other uses, see ABC Murders (disambiguation).

The A.B.C. Murders
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
AuthorAgatha Christie
Cover artistNot known
SeriesHercule Poirot
GenreCrime novel
PublisherCollins Crime Club
Publication date
6 January 1936
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages256 (first edition, hardback)
ISBN978-1-57912-624-7
Preceded byDeath in the Clouds 
Followed byMurder 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]

  1. ^ The Observer, 29 December 1935 (p. 6)
  2. ^ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (p. 15)
  3. ^ "The Classic Years: 1935 – 1939". American Tribute to Agatha Christie. May 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT1936 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Torq1936 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Barnard1990 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).