(Blurb for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd from Goodreads) Considered to be one of Agatha Christie’s most controversial mysteries, The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd breaks the rules of traditional mystery.
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death, that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “grey cells” before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is another cracking book by Agatha Christie. In this novel, the role of Hastings has been taken up by the local doctor James Sheppard who tells the story in the first person.
In the village of Kings Abbott wealthy widow, Mrs Ferrars has committed suicide much to the shock of her fiance Roger Ackroyd. That evening Ackroyd holds a dinner at his home Fernly Park inviting the doctor to attend. The guests include Ackroyd’s sister-in-law Mrs Cecil Ackroyd with her daughter Flora, Major Blunt (a big game hunter) and Ackroyd’s personal secretary Geoffrey Raymond. During dinner, Flora reveals her engagement to Ackroyd’s stepson Ralph Paton. Following Dinner, Ackroyd takes the doctor to his study and confides in him that his fiancee was being blackmailed over the death of her husband. He then asks Sheppard to leave while he reads a letter from her that came in the post containing her suicide note. Doctor Sheppard leaves for home immediately, on his way back he bumps into a stranger looking for ‘Fernly Park’.
At home, the doctor receives a call from Parker; Roger Ackroyd’s butler claiming that Ackroyd is dead. The doctor leaves immediately to Fernly Park to investigate. When he arrives at Ackroyd’s home, Parker denies ever making a call, but the two men with the help of Major Blunt and Raymond manage to enter Ackroyd’s study where they find him dead. Roger Ackroyd has been stabbed with one of the weapons from his collection.
Hercule Poirot, who has retired and is living next door to doctor Sheppard and his sister is invited by Flora to investigate the murder of her Uncle.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is an extremely entertaining romp full of all the twists and turns that we expect from an Agatha Christie novel. All characters are brought into the frame at one time or another including the butler Parker, the housekeeper Miss Russell, even one of the chambermaids Ursula Bourne. No-one is omitted, the cast is a fine one.
People may say that they can work out who is the murderer halfway through a novel, but I can honestly say that I was in the dark right until the big reveal.
Read this book, you won’t be disappointed…
