Book Reviews: A.B.C Murders

A.B.C Murders by Agatha Christie. A.B.C Murders was published on January 6, 1936 by Collins Crime Club, London. A.B.C Murders was written in the Swing Era the era where jazz music was very popular around the world . This Story is written in first- person observer Captain Hastings refers to himself as I only occasionally.

There are eight main characters. They are,

Hercule Poirot, a retired detective who is Belgian he came out of retirement to solve this case

Captain Arthur Hastings,An Impatient man who is Poirot's old friend has a habit of pointing out the obvious

Inspector Japp, Another old friend of Poirot that is assigned to the case,

Alice Ascher, The first Victim of murder and owns a tobacco shop

ABC, An unknown murder and who uses a railway guide as a clue

Franklin Clarke, The third murdered victim's brother who agrees to help Poirot solve the case

Elizabeth Betty Barnard, The second murdered victim a young girl that worked at a cafe

Sir Carmichael Clarke, The third murdered victim a wealthy man with no children.

The story begins when Captain Hastings visits Hercule Poirot and reads him a mysterious letter saying that he will murder someone in Andover ,and it is signed ABC.Poirot thinks it just a host until the Murder actually happens and the victims name starts with the letter A.Poirot and Hastings interview people from Andover that knew Alice Ascher the victim they came to Alice's niece Mary Drower. after they interview her they went home when they went home they had found another letter saying that there will be another murder in Bexhill -on sea. The next day Elizabeth Betty Barnard was murdered.

After interviewing a couple of people they found out that Donald Fraser and he agrees to help Poirot find out who the murderer is.When Poirot gets home he finds a third letter from ABC saying that someone would be murdered in Churchill. The victim was Sir Carmichael Clarke a wealthy man who had a brother,named Franklin Clarke and a loyal servant named Thora Grey, they both join Poirot and Hastings to solve the Crime.Poirot orders a meeting with the crime solvers but he has a meeting with a man that works at a movie theater named Alexander Boundaparte Cust Hastings thinks it is the Murderer but Poirot thinks that an epileptic can't plan such a good murder.

Poirot interviews Alexander Boundaparte Cust and ask him did he do the murders and he says he did but he's not sure. After a couple of days Poirot came to his conclusion that Franklin Clarke was the murderer because he wanted to kill his brother because he wanted to inherit his wealth.He needed someone to blame it on so he used Alexander Boundaparte Cust, and needed to kill two other people to get to his brother.When Franklin Clarke agreed he pulled out a gun and put it to his head pulled the trigger and nothing happened the reason why was Poirot had hired a sneak thief to unload the gun and put it back into his pocket without being noticed.

Agatha Christie appears to be objective because I think she wrote this book because she doesn't really give a real reason to write a Mystery novel.Although in some places of the book it seems like it is subjective because Hastings accused Alexander Boundaparte Cust of being the murder when he wasn't, you can't judge a book by it's cover.

This book gave very little emotions."I felt sad when Alice Ascher died because she was a poor old woman and she hadn't done anything wrong or annoy A.B.C enough until he feel like he had to kill her.When they interviewed people after the second and third murders I felt suspicious of people like Sir Carmichael Clarke's wife, Betty Barnard's boss, but most of Alexander Boundaparte Cust i thought he was the murderer since his initials were spelled out A.B.C., and i found myself judging a book by it's cover or in this case name.When the murderer was revealed (Franklin Clarke) I was surprised it was him since he would've killed his own brother. I never thought that Franklin Clarke would murder his own brother. I also admired him in another way for being so clever, but at the same time I was mad. I also felt sorry for Mr.Cust since he had epilepsy and on top of that he was being framed for a murder. I also made more aware of the world when these murders happened I've never lived or been to the United Kingdom so this story made me more aware of what it's like there, and that there are bad people in this world and you might not know who they are. They could be your own brother ,your best friend. The characters in A.B.C Murders seemed believable i could relate to them because there are police,detectives,and the Scotland Yard in our world today. I especially liked Poirot he had a sense of humor while serious at the same time, and he never gave up on his case. This story is out-dated because they use old fancy English terms and it is harder for kids, and some adults to understand at times.