A.B.C. against Poirot

A.B.C against Poirot ( in A.B.C. Murders in the anglophone original editions) is a Detective novel written by Agatha Christie, published in 1936.

The intrigue of the novel

The captain Hastings is of return in England. Hercule Poirot accommodates it at the station and announces to him that a few days ago, it received a curious letter, signed A.B.C. , saying to him to go to see with Andover the 21 of this month. The following day, the 22, Poirot and Hastings will see the Inspecteur Japp, which teaches them that commercial named Ascher was wildly struck with death. The suspicions move towards the husband of the victim, which already threatened to kill her. A guide of the railroads A.B.C.a left at the side of Mrs. Ascher… The niece of the victim, Mary Drower, is her only alive relationship. She is very sad, more especially as his/her aunt had just bought a pair of silk stocking which she hoped to offer to him.

One second letter comes from in Poirot, giving him go to Bexhill. Over there, the body of a strangled woman is discovered by a man walking his dog. The new victim names Miss Barnard. Poirot notices that the name of the first victim starts with has, and that she lived in Andover. Now, it is B for Bexhill. Perhaps does the assassin wish to make all the alphabet? And why the letters are addressed to Poirot? Would the assassin be an insane homicide which would have a mania of the alphabet? And especially, which bond exists there between the victims?

Editions

1936 : in The ABC Murders - Hakes, London
1936: in The ABC Murders - Dodd Mead, New York
1938: A.B.C against Poirot - Bookstore of the Fields-Élysées, coll. The Mask n° 263, Paris, in a translation of Louis Postif
1966: in The Alphabet Murders - Pocket Books, New York - Republication under an alternate title
1992: A.B.C against Poirot - Bookstore of the Fields-Élysées, coll. Integral volume 5 (the years 1936-1937) , Paris - New translation of Francoise Bouillot

Film adaptation

The realizer Frank Tashlin made use of the screen of the novel to carry out a police comedy, ABC against Hercule Poirot , enough infidel with the spirit of the work of Agatha Christie, which does not have any particular comic spring. The symbol more marked this inaccuracy film with the novel resides in the transformation of the male character Alexandre-Bonaparte Cust (in the novel) into that of the female character Amanda Beatrice Cross (in film).

Televised adaptation

On the other hand, the episode A.B.C against Poirot of the televised series Hercule Poirot , diffused in 1992, with David Suchet (Hercule Poirot), Hugh Fraser (Arthur Hastings) and Philip Jackson (Japp inspector) is much in conformity with the spirit of the novel.

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