The A.B.C. Murders: A New Poirot Mystery.

CHRISTIE, Agatha.

Item Number: 142592

New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1936.

First Grosset & Dunlap edition of one of Christie’s scarcest 1930s titles, printed the same year as the first American edition printed by Dodd, Mead & Company. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth. Syndication copy, marked and altered for syndication in red, blue and graphite pencils by King Features Syndicate. Changes include the breaking up of text for serialisation, spaces for image insertion, the alteration of language that would be unfamiliar to American audiences and the removal of blaspheming. In good condition. A unique example.

"A classic, still fresh story, beautifully worked out... [the plot] differs from the usual pattern in that we seem to be involved in a chase: the series of murders appears to be the work of a maniac. In fact the solution reasserts the classic pattern of a closed circle of suspects, with a logical, well-motivated murder plan. The English detective story cannot embrace the irrational, it seems" (Robert Barnard).