SUMMARY
The ABC Murders
tells about the adventure of Hercule Poirot, a private
detective, in solving a serial murder case. He is accompanied by his friend named
Captain Hastings. The story starts when Poirot shows a letter from the murderer to
Hastings. The killer challenge Poirot to stop him. The letter shows when and where
the murder will take place. It is at Andover on the 21
st
of the month.
The story, then, switch into the third person point of view describing a man
named Alexander Bonaparte Cust. He is making a list of name and thick the first
name with a pen.
The Andover murder finally takes place. Poirot and Hastings are too late. The
victim is Mrs.Ascher. She opens a small store in Andover. The policemen find the
ABC railway guide in the room where her body is. Poirot then finds some proves
from the persons who know Mrs. Ascher but find nothing suspicious. After a few
days, he comes again to the place where the event takes place. He just want to
reproduce yesterday’s atmosphere as closely as possible. He asks some more people,
but again, he finds nothing.
The second letter is finally come to him again. Now the murder will take place
in Bexhill-on-Sea on the 25
th
. The policemen try to stop this murder. Unfortunately,
they fail to stop the killer. The murder happens just like what is said in the letter. The
victim is a waitress of a café, Elizabeth Barnard. Again, the ABC railway guide is
found open under her body.
Poirot visits her parents and her relatives to ask some questions, including
Elizabeth’s boy friend. He finds some useful facts that will be used for solving the
crime later. He also notices that the murders follow the alphabet structure.
A conference is at last held at Scotland Yard. The conference discusses the
ABC case. It is visited by some important people from police department.
Another letter is sent to Poirot. This is the third letter. It tells him that the
murder will happen in Churston on the 30
th
. Mr. Carmichael Clarke becomes the third
victim of the killer and as usual, the ABC guide found deposited beside his body.
Poirot and some policemen meet Franklin Clarke, the victim’s only brother. They ask
some questions to him to find some proves.
The story switches again to Mr. Cust. He says that he has a headache and
sometimes he does not even understand what he have done.
The serial killer becomes reporter’s main breakfast. Lots of newspapers report
it and make it as their headline. However, Poirot finally makes a hypothesis. He
explains what have happened so far. They also get the description of the murderer.
The fourth letter arrives and tells that another murder will take place at
Doncaster on the 11
th
September. The victim is, surprisingly, a man called Earlsfield,
George Earlsfield. His name begins with letter E so it does not match with the serial
murders, which happened so far. However, the ABC guide still found in the dead
body. Poirot and friends meet the man who found the dead body. His name is Mr.
Downes. They think that the killer takes a wrong person. It is Mr. Downes who
should be the victim.
Another switch of the story shows that Mr. Cust goes out from Regal Cinema.
His sleeve is stained with blood. He also finds a knife in his pocket. He blames
himself and starts to run to his room. He washes his hands when a tap on the door is
heard. A young woman opens the door and offers hot water for him. She looks the
basin with the red water. Mr. Cust lies to her about the water. Finally the young
woman go away. Mr. Cust runs away from his room.
The young woman tells the policemen that she saw Mr. Cust with his bleeding
sleeve. When the policemen go to his room, they find nothing.
However, Mr. Cust finally surrender to the police himself. He thinks that he
himself is the murderer. The case is over, but not to Poirot. He still has some
questions in his mind. He tries to find some answers and finally gets what he wanted.
He, then, understand who is the real killer. It is Mr. Franklin Clarke who wants his
brother’s treasure . Mr. Cust is only a victim that is used by Mr. Franklin because of
his illness.
