Mindhunter Meets Poirot In Agatha Christie’s Darkest 3-Part Adaptation

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Many films and TV shows have adapted Agatha Christie’s work, but only one dark interpretation of Hercule Poirot successfully captured the unsettling atmosphere of a show like Netflix’s Mindhunter. Christie is considered the most important mystery writer ever, largely because her books in the early 1900s established many of the tropes we now expect in murder mysteries.

Authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle laid the groundwork for murder mysteries, but Agatha Christie truly perfected the genre. It’s not surprising that her stories continue to inspire new shows, such as Tommy and Tuppence, and that characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple have been popular on television and in films for decades. Her most suspenseful novel, And Then There Were None, has been adapted for the screen five times – and even parodied by Family Guy in a remarkably accurate take on the bestselling mystery.

While the 2015 version of And Then There Were None is a good adaptation, the darkest screen version of Agatha Christie’s work is actually the 2019 series The ABC Murders, featuring John Malkovich as the eccentric detective Hercule Poirot. Though based on the 1936 novel of the same name, The ABC Murders breaks from Christie’s usual style by showing the killer’s identity relatively early. But appearances can be deceiving, and things aren’t always what they seem.

2019’s The ABC Murders Featured The Darkest Version of Poirot Ever

As a big mystery fan, I’ve seen a lot of stories where you know who did it from the start – think classic Columbo or the newer show Poker Face. Those are fun because it’s all about how they’ll get away with it. But Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders is different. It’s not that simple. The truth about who’s behind the killings is way more twisted and complex than her usual style, and the killer’s identity isn’t straightforward at all. It really messes with your head!

The story works well in the original book – a lighthearted travelogue where Poirot and his assistant journey across Britain by train, trying to prevent a killer who targets seaside towns based on the first letters of their names. But while similar, fun murder mysteries were popular on television when the show came out, the 2019 series unfortunately took the book’s playful nature far too seriously.

The ABC Murders Wasted John Malkovich’s Poirot Performance

The TV adaptation of The ABC Murders is much too grim for a Poirot story, preventing David Malkovich from bringing his usual playful energy to the character of the eccentric detective. This highlights a larger issue with adapting Agatha Christie’s work: while many of her mysteries are lighthearted, she also wrote surprisingly dark novels like And Then There Were None. Viewers generally expect Poirot to be a fun, engaging mystery, not a dark, psychological thriller like True Detective, and this new series feels out of place. Despite some positive reviews, the adaptation doesn’t feel true to the spirit of the original novel.

Some of Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels, like Hallowe’en Party, are naturally suited to a darker, more psychological adaptation – think shows like Mindhunter or Silence of the Lambs. However, the recent adaptation of The ABC Murders tried this approach with the wrong story. The original novel is a light, enjoyable mystery, but the adaptation added unnecessary psychological depth and suspense, which didn’t fit with the typical Poirot style. While bringing that darker Mindhunter feel to Agatha Christie might sound interesting, it ultimately didn’t work well for this particular story.

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2026-06-02 01:10