Mystery and Suspense in the ABC Murders
Abstract
The ABC Murders is a novel about a serial murderer who kills his victims in an alphabetical order. What seems as actions of a murderous maniac is, however, a carefully elaborate murder plan whose motive is completely different from alleged motive. The ABC Murders is an atypical story of Agatha Christie. Murders in her novels are usually committed in private places where readers soon know everybody who could be a murderer. However, Franklin Clarke, a murderer in this novel, appears for the first time in the middle of the story. Murders are done in public places and victims seem to have nothing in common except for the fact that they are killed in an alphabetical order. Moreover, the murderer is not so much the least likely suspect as never suspected at all.