The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)

Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)

Author: Agatha Christie

Published in: 1926

Date read: 31st March 2016

Score: 5/5

Genre: Crime, Detective, Mystery

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," published in 1926, is one of Agatha Christie's most famous and groundbreaking detective novels, renowned for its audacious twist ending that redefined the genre. It features the eccentric Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

The story is set in the quiet, seemingly idyllic English village of King's Abbot. The narrative is uniquely presented from the perspective of Dr. James Sheppard, the local general practitioner and the narrator of the novel, who becomes intimately involved in the unfolding mystery.

The tranquility of the village is shattered by two shocking deaths. First, Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow with a scandalous past, dies by apparent suicide, following the suspected poisoning of her husband a year prior. It is widely rumored that Mrs. Ferrars poisoned her first husband and was having an affair with a prominent local landowner, Roger Ackroyd.

The very next evening, Roger Ackroyd himself is brutally murdered in his locked study. He had just received a letter from Mrs. Ferrars, confessing something, and had told Dr. Sheppard he was about to read it, but then sent the doctor away. Ackroyd is found dead with a dagger in his neck.

Hercule Poirot, who has recently retired to King's Abbot to pursue his hobby of growing vegetable marrows, is reluctantly drawn out of retirement by Flora Ackroyd, Roger's niece, to investigate the seemingly impossible crime. He finds himself surrounded by a diverse cast of suspects, all with motives and secrets:

• Flora Ackroyd: Roger's niece, dependent on his money.
• Major Blunt: A big-game hunter, secretly in love with Flora.
• Geoffrey Raymond: Ackroyd's secretary.
• Miss Russell: Ackroyd's housekeeper, with a hidden past.
• Charles Kent: Miss Russell's illegitimate son, lurking in the village.
• Caroline Sheppard: Dr. Sheppard's gossipy sister, who provides Poirot with a wealth of local information.

Poirot meticulously gathers clues, interviews suspects, and applies his renowned "little grey cells" to unravel the complex web of alibis, hidden relationships, and suppressed truths. He scrutinizes every detail, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

The novel is a brilliant exercise in misdirection and psychological suspense. Christie masterfully leads the reader down various garden paths, building a seemingly airtight case against one suspect after another. The climax reveals the true murderer in a stunning denouement that relies on a clever manipulation of narrative perspective, shocking readers and forever cementing the novel's place as a cornerstone of detective fiction.

Comments:
I decided that I had never read a book by the Queen of Crime so I did a simple Google search as to which one to try first and this came up as the one. I enjoyed it, I did not see who the killer was and was blown away by the very clever end. Since then, I have started to dip in a work my way through them.

Books that we've read by Agatha Christie (8):
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1) (1920), The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries, #1) (1922), The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) (1923), The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1) (1924), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4) (1926), The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1) (1930), The Thirteen Problems (Miss Marple, #1) (1932), And Then There Were None (1939)