In this novel Poirot is past his career peak and his approach is challenged as somewhat old-fashioned in the form of Inspector Crome, an ambitious young detective who prefers more modern methods in his investigation. In The ABC Murders Poirot is involved in a cat and mouse game with a serial killer, someone who warns in advance where and when he will strike, taunting our Belgian hero the murderer begins with middle-aged shopkeeper Mrs Alice Ascher in Andover, then flirty young waitress Betty Barnard in Bexhill-on-sea, and so on. I think I might prefer that to the darker readings of more recent years (rather like my late grandmother who was a voracious reader and loved nothing more than losing herself for a day in “a good murder”!) The film and television adaptations I have watched of Agatha Christie works have been more like costume dramas with more than a hint of comedy. I’d love to watch it, actually, now that I’ve read the book, but sadly it’s not available at the moment. I had also seen a little of the television adaptation from 2018 starring John Malkovich (though I think I only caught a couple of episodes) and it seemed altogether more grounded in the grim reality of its criminal subject. I loved the escapism of Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express and I wanted to see if I would enjoy just as much a murder mystery set in the more prosaic location of London. I’ve read a few Agatha Christie’s in the last couple of years, having never much delved into this genre for most of my reading life. This was the title I chose for May in my Facebook Reading Challenge, the theme of which was classic crime fiction.

Agatha christie the abc murders book