About Agatha Christie and The ABC Murders

Poirot is back on our television screens, in a new adaptation of one of his most exhilarating cases. Widely regarded as one of Agatha Christie’s best mysteries, The ABC Murders is one of the most surprising and unusual appearances by literature’s most famous detective.

Published: 15 December 2018

The ABC Murders is one of Christie’s boldest stories, in which she introduces the terror of the serial killer long before crime fiction’s current obsession. Alongside titles such as Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile, this is one of the crème de la crème of Poirot novels.

As well as the premise of the serial killer, the novel deals with the themes of criminal psychology and psychopathy, the effects of the First World War, and changing social lives - particularly those of young girls, who no longer 'rush home at night'.

The book was written and is set in 1935, and was published in January 1936 two years after Murder on the Orient Express. A review from the Times Literary Supplement of January 1936 said: "If Mrs. Christie ever deserts fiction for crime, she will be very dangerous: no one but Poirot will catch her."

It has previously been adapted for screen as The Alphabet Murders with Tony Randall as Poirot in 1965, and for an episode of ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot starring David Suchet. It has also been the inspiration for various foreign language productions.

About Agatha Christie

Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the best-selling novelist of all time. She was an extraordinary woman with a remarkable mind.

  • Wrote her first mystery novel in 1916 when she was just 26, following a bet with her sister. It was published four years later as The Mysterious Affair at Styles (which features Hercule Poirot).
  • Prolific writing career spanning six decades, with 66 crime novels, six non-crime novels and over 150 short stories. Her work includes Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and the genre defining And Then There Were None, the world’s best-selling crime novel.
  • Created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, two of the most famous detectives of all time.
  • Wrote over 20 plays, of which the most famous, The Mousetrap, is the longest running play in the world, having debuted in 1952.
  • With more than 2 billion books published, she is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her works have been widely adapted and produced across most media platforms around the world, including TV, film, radio, publishing, stage, games and digital.
  • Her books have been published in over 100 languages, making her the most translated writer of all time.
  • She was made a Dame in 1971.
  • Did you know? That Agatha Christie worked in a pharmacy during World War I and qualified as a dispenser in 1917. It was here she acquired her knowledge of poisons.
  • Did you know? That Christie learnt to surf in South Africa and Hawaii in 1922 during a tour of the British Empire.
  • Did you know? That she spent many seasons in the Middle East with her second husband, eminent archaeologist Max Mallowan, and assisted him on the digs.
  • Did you know? That her character Hercule Poirot is the only fictional character to have had an obituary in the New York Times.