The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

Looking for a good mystery?  Agatha Christie continues to captivate me and manages to capture me by surprise in her masterfully written mysteries.

Captain Arthur Hastings has returned to England and makes it a first priority to visit his old friend Hercule Poirot.  He finds Poirot in good spirits, but having received a strange anonymous letter promising a mystery to crack in Andover on the 21^st.  Poirot goes to Scotland Yard, but is unable to get anywhere with the letter until Mrs. Ascher is killed in Andover.  The killings follow the alphabet with Betty Barnard killed in Bexhill next.  The killer sends clues to Poirot, but he seems unable to crack them before the next victim is claimed.  Will Poirot be able to solve the case?

I don’t want to say more and ruin the fun of this mystery.  I thought I had it all figured out, but Christie surprised me again.  I can’t even get into how she fooled me with this book, but it was masterfully written. I loved this book.  It was a fast-paced mystery that didn’t take too long to read.  I love Christie’s characters and how she brings them to life.  I love the proud Hercule Poirot and I also enjoyed how Hastings seemed almost a Watson to his Sherlock Holmes in this novel.  I also enjoyed all of the other characters and also how Christie brought in PTSD for a World War I soldier before PTSD was diagnosed and talked about it.

Amazon Prime made a new mini-series based on this novel.  I’ve started to watch it and am enjoying it.  It veers somewhat from the book, but I like that they aren’t 100% the same.  The show is making it darker than the novel thus far.  My biggest item about the series is that Rupert Grint AKA Ron from Harry Potter is an inspector and appeared middle aged to me.  I about had a heart attack when I realized who it was and felt very, very old.

Favorite Quotes:

“’This is the beginning,’ said Hercule Poirot”

“I shall, I think remember that 11^th of September all of my life.”

Overall, Agatha Christie is the master of mystery novels and The ABC Mysteries proves once again how masterfully she writes her stories.

                                                                                                                               

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow. Thank-you!