San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle appears in Charles Osborne’s critical survey of The ABC Murders as a source of two distinct endorsements. Its notices emphasize both the novel’s carefully shaped, deceptive plotting and the strength of its characters, offering a concise record of the book’s reception.

Reviews of The ABC Murders

The first quotation, presented in Osborne’s account of the novel’s reception, describes it as “A finely shaped book, richly devious and quite brilliant.” The praise joins formal control to misdirection: the plot’s ingenuity is presented as part of the book’s design, not simply as a sequence of surprises.

A later citation gives a second assessment: “The plot is perfect and the characters are wonderful.” Where the earlier notice stresses the book’s deceptive construction, this one explicitly pairs plot and characterization. Together, the two comments register the novel’s appeal as both a detection puzzle and a work whose people are vividly realized.

Place in the Book’s Reception

Osborne places the Chronicle’s comments among reviews and appraisals included in his account of The ABC Murders. The separate quotations preserve two aspects of the paper’s response rather than reducing its praise to a single general verdict: one stresses shape and ingenuity, the other the conjunction of plot and character.

The Chronicle’s notices are part of the book’s wider reception history, which Osborne discusses alongside its serialized publication, adaptations, and influence on later crime fiction. In this context, the reviews provide contemporary critical testimony to the qualities that make the novel’s intricate construction effective.