Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
Year: 1936
Series: Hercule Poirot Mystery
SUMMARY
There’s a serial killer on the loose, working his way through the alphabet and the whole country is in a state of panic.
A is for Mrs. Ascher in Andover, B is for Betty Barnard in Bexhill, C is for Sir Carmichael Clarkein Churston. With each murder, the killer is getting more confident – but leaving a trail of deliberate clues to taunt the proud Hercule Poirot might just prove to be the first, and fatal, mistake.
Foreword
by Captain Arthur Hastings, O.B.E.
In this narrative of mine I have departed from my usual practice of relating
only those incidents and scenes at which I myself was present. Certain
chapters, therefore, are written in the third person.
I wish to assure my readers that I can vouch for the occurrences related
in these chapters. If I have taken a certain poetic licence in describing the
thoughts and feelings of various persons, it is because I believe I have set
them down with a reasonable amount of accuracy. I may add that they have
been “vetted” by my friend Hercule Poirot himself.
In conclusion, I will say that if I have described at too great length some
of the secondary personal relationships which arose as a consequence of
this strange series of crimes, it is because the human and personal elements
can never be ignored. Hercule Poirot once taught me in a very dramatic
manner that romance can be a by-product of crime.
As to the solving of the A.B.C. mystery, I can only say that in my
opinion Poirot showed real genius in the way he tackled a problem entirely
unlike any which had previously come his way