The curtains in the study room were widely opened, and the morning sunlight poured into the room, which was lit with woody incense.
Carl leaned back in his chair and read "The ABC Murders."
This year is the 21st year since he started writing, and he has created a well-known series, which ranks him in the first echelon among the mystery writers who are still alive in Blue Star.
After reading "Roger's Mystery" before, he also dug out "Suspect X" and read it.
In recent years, it is relatively rare to read about a new and cutting-edge writer who can write such high-quality works and even create a new genre such as narrative.
Yes, after the narrative mystery mode was developed in "Roger Mystery", works with this as the core conspiracy have successfully appeared.
Carl also tried this technique in his new work. After writing it down, he felt that it was really energy-consuming to skillfully integrate the narrative into the overall story without letting the readers notice it.
So as soon as he finished the work, Karl opened this new work.
The preface successfully aroused Karl's interest. The preface specifically pointed out that some chapters were narrated in the third person, and at the same time guaranteed the facts of these texts, which directly banned the possibility of hidden narrative tricks.
At the same time, the smooth expression of the text made Carl not feel like reading books by foreign authors at all. Instead, he recalled the feeling of reading mystery novels when he was young, which was very authentic.
After all, Jiang Yuan reproduced it one-to-one in Grandma’s handwriting.
At the beginning of the story, Poirot received a letter from ABC, a crime notice. ABC threatened to kill XYZ in alphabetical order starting from ABC.
Karl nodded subconsciously. Crime preview is a technique used in many mystery works. If it is done well, it will still be a wonderful story.
After receiving the letter, Poirot and Hastings discussed it. Although they had an ominous premonition, they could not confirm it because time was not yet up and they could only treat it as a prank.
And when the time came to the 21st in the trailer, an old lady named Asher was murdered in Andwall by being struck on the back of the head.
The ABC train timetable placed on the table in the store attracted Poirot's attention. Every detail corresponded to the ABC's notice letter.
After reading this, Carl knew that the beginning of the case had appeared, so he began to read carefully, and took out a pencil to outline the key points in the book and the passages that he thought were well written.
There are not many novels that Carl can treat like this. Apart from "Roger's Mystery" and "The Suspect", this is the third one this year.
After Case A occurred, Poirot and Hastings went to Overton to visit Mrs. Asher's niece.
No murder weapon was left at the scene, but based on the wounds, it was inferred that the murder weapon should be a heavy object such as a stick.
By asking Mrs. Ascher's niece and others, she learned that Mrs. Ascher had a scumbag husband who was an alcoholic and often threatened to kill her.
At this time, Poirot received another letter. ABC provoked that the previous case was just the beginning, and predicted that a second case would occur on Bexhill Beach on the 25th.
Poirot and others immediately went to Bexhill and contacted the local police inspector.
According to the alphabetical order, the place where the first case occurred and the initials of the deceased both begin with A.
On the 25th, the body of a young woman was found on the beach, the waitress of the cafe, Badna.
The cause of death was strangulation, and the murder weapon was Miss Badner's own braided belt.
There was also an ABC train timetable beside the deceased, and the page he opened happened to be the train to Bexhill.
Karl frowned and began to think. The murderer's method of committing crimes was to kill people randomly in alphabetical order.
But in Karl's view, this couldn't be an ordinary random crime. There must be a reason behind the case.
However, looking at the deceased in the two cases, there were no common characteristics at all, which made Carl curious about the reason behind it and continued reading.
According to interviews, Betty Badner is a young and beautiful girl who has a boyfriend named Donald Fraser.
But from Betty Badner's sister Megan, she learned that her boyfriend named Donald had a little green on his head. The two had a big fight about it, and Donald even said that he would kill her one day.
So Poirot went to Donald and asked about it, and Donald explained the situation.
Previously, Betty had said that night that she would go to surrounding cities to hang out with female friends.
Tang didn't quite believe it, so he went to the surrounding cities and wandered around all night, but didn't see Betty. He also looked for several hotels to check the check-in information, but couldn't find any. He walked back home in the middle of the night feeling depressed.
Although there was a motive for committing the crime, there were no witnesses and no evidence, and Tang obviously had no connection with Case A.
The case then came to a standstill again, and case B obviously attracted more public attention than case A.
After all, it is a coastal city, and the deceased was a young and beautiful woman, possessing popular elements.
After a meeting and discussion, the case was made public, and the media rushed to report it.
A few days later, Poirot received another letter, which announced the third case, which would be in Chester on the 30th.
The letter was sent on the 27th, but when Poirot received the letter it was already the 30th, and there was no time left.
It was already midnight when we arrived at the place. Sir Carmichael Clark, whose name starts with the letter C, was killed. He suffered a heavy blow to the back of the head and died. The train timetable was also placed next to him.
Carl subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief after reading this. He escaped with the name starting with C.
Sir Clark likes to go out for a walk at night. At home, he has his terminally ill wife, his brother Franklin Clark, and the young and beautiful female secretary Thora Gray.
After the doctor examined the body, the secretary Miss Gray suddenly mentioned the D case that had not yet occurred, which triggered Hastings' thinking.
At the same time, it also caused Karl to think.
Until now, he still could not find any connection between the three cases.
Even turning to the next chapter is not Hastings' autobiography.
This is the second non-self-narrated content in the book. Mr. Custer, who appeared before, appears again.
Mr. Custer bought a newspaper, read an account of the murder, and had a brief conversation with a young man.
Custer read the report over and over again. Everyone around him was discussing the murder, but no one noticed him.
After reading this, Karl fell into deep thought again.
Up to this point, he still couldn't understand.
This non-narrative content must be very important to him.
The key is that it is difficult for him to connect it with the previous text.
Unable to figure out the key point, he briefly fell into self-doubt.
In the end, I blamed it on the fact that I had just finished a book and consumed too much mental energy.
Then I read on with even more anticipation, and my reading state was more relevant to that of an ordinary reader.
