Murders by alphabet

It all started with a seemingly crazy anonymous letter signed A B C. This was followed by the murder of the old tobacconist A. Ascher from Andover. On the counter of the newsagent's was an open Alphabetical Timetable, known by the abbreviation ABC. The forebodings that had come to Hercule Poirot's mind over the letter he had received had come true. Just like the good old days, he hits the trail with his friend Captain Hastings. But there is another murder - this time of Betty Bernard on the beach at Bexhill, and then a third - of Lord Carmichael Clark at Curston.

Both Poirot and Hastings defy something worse than ordinary crime, facing madness...