# Share your favorite "perfect murder" plans from fiction (open spoilers inevitable).

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-favorite-perfect-murder-plans-from-fiction-open-spoilers-inevitable/586481>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 22, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-favorite-perfect-murder-plans-from-fiction-open-spoilers-inevitable/586481 "2011-06-22T20:31:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-favorite-perfect-murder-plans-from-fiction-open-spoilers-inevitable/586481/41 "2011-06-24T17:17:42Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> How did Poirot come to suspect this person? Poirot disliked too many coincidences. The culprit was acquainted with a large number of people who’d committed murder, and THAT seemed implausible to Poirot. A cop or a criminal lawyer may have met a dozen murderers, but it’s impossible to believe that an ordinary, honest middle-class person just happens to know a dozen murderers.
> 
> So, did the culprit ever actually TELL one of his friends to commit murder? No, not at all. He just learned how to read people and push their buttons.

Since reading _Curtain_, I’ve always wanted to see a Poirot/Miss Marple crossover where it turns out that Miss Marple is a dastardly mass murderer in this vein. Because it’s just implausible that an ordinary, honest old lady would be mixed up in a dozen murders… I’m imagining Miss Marple needling her friends: “Come on, you know your husband’s a loser… it would be so easy to just get rid of him…”

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-favorite-perfect-murder-plans-from-fiction-open-spoilers-inevitable/586481/42 "2011-06-24T17:28:11Z")

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Yeah, St. Mary Mead (and its American analog, Cabot Cove, Maine) has a homicide rate worthy of a Mexican border town.

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**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-favorite-perfect-murder-plans-from-fiction-open-spoilers-inevitable/586481/43 "2011-06-24T21:53:44Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> That idea is at LEAST as old as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mystery _ **The ABC Murders.** _
> 
> Ellis Peters and GK Chesterton have used it, too.

The \*\*ABC Murders \*\* of course. I think I’ve read all of Father Brown. Can you point me to the story you’re thinking about?

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