Seldom do we come across pieces of art, those which please the senses and can be treasured for long. It wont be far from the mark, if I say that the ABC Murders is one such work. It leaves back a taste in your mind...like the furtive ice creams on hot summer days. Later you will remember them and nostalgia will flood you. Thats what this book is - a flood of wit and intelligence which seeps into your psyche from the pages insidiously, grasping your attention and not letting you relax until you have turned over the last page.
Poirot receives an anonymous letter at his office one day - that of a madman, bent on doing something. What that something is, becomes known when an elderly lady is found murdered in her small tobacco shop in And over. And then the chase begins, because after A comes B, and then C......
The initial disbelief, then the dread, the impending sense of doom, the frustration- everything is masterfully portrayed. The narrative does get a tad slow at times, but then that’s a minor glitch in the otherwise fast and thrilling panorama. The angle of Alexander Bonaparte Curt is good, though nothing new and definitely nothing path-breaking. The golden touch - the climax. It is, in one word, riveting.
Go read it.