The ABC Murders

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Take 2: A New Twist”

In this activity, students will test and debate whether Christie’s ending was the only possible or inevitable outcome for the story by suggesting an alternative ending that can also be supported by textual evidence and then attempting to support or disprove that ending.

The twist or surprise ending is a hallmark of mystery fiction. For a mystery to be satisfying to readers, it should give them all the information they need to solve the case but still surprise them with the solution. In The ABC Murders, the big twist comes when Poirot reveals that Franklin Clarke, not Mr. Cust, committed the murders. Regardless of whether you correctly predicted the murderer’s identity, you likely suspected various characters as you read the novel. The purpose of this activity is to test whether Poirot’s solution is the only and inevitable explanation or just one of many possible solutions for the evidence contained in the novel.

Work in a group of two or more. Each group will be responsible to come up with an alternate twist ending that makes sense of textual evidence.