The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Introduction

Published in June, 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered Christie’s masterpiece. Owing to it’s innovating twists and turn of events, It is considered one among the best crime novels of all time. It was awarded the best novel ever, voted by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers’ Association. Known as the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie was an English author who wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short stories in her lifetime. The central characters of the detective novels were the fictional detectives who would investigate the crime. Some of her infamous detectives are- Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence. This is a Hercule Poirot classic.

An essence of the novel

Dr. James Sheppard is the narrator of the story, he lives with his sister Caroline in the small country village of King’s Abbot. The country is shaken by the sudden death of a young Mrs. Ferrars, who’s death was a matter of much suspicion and gossip among the countryfolk, particularly Caroline who seems to know everything about everyone before anyone else. Dr. Sheppard is called into the confidence of Roger Ackroyd, former lover of Mrs. Ferrars, as he was troubled about his nephew, Captain Ralph Paton, a young man subject to vices and extravagance who often ran into trouble in terms of money. That night, Dr. Sheppard gets a phone call from the servant serving Ackroyd informing his death. Shaken, he rushes to the Fernly house, the residence of Roger Ackroyd to find that the servant hadn’t made the call and he was confident of Ackroyd’s well being, together they follow to Ackroyd’s study room to find him on the chair lying still, with a knife stuck on his neck. He was murdered. The police was immediately called and the family members were informed, soon investigations followed, all the suspicions leading towards Ralph Paton, who was missing from the country and seemed to have fled without notice. A certain Mr. Hercule Poirot, a belgian former detective, is requested to investigate the case by Flora, fiance of Ralph Paton, to prove his innocence. Dr. Sheppard is drawn to Poirot and together they investigate and speculate the clues leading to the murderer.

Review

An unreliable narrator is hands down one of the best reads, especially when you realise it only towards the end of the book. I started suspecting Dr. Sheppard just for the sake of it when him and poirot were in his Workshop, i distinctly remember thinking “what if..?” I just never expected it to actually come into reality. Every single mystery has a twist calculated so well, it leaves your mouth gaping wide open. The telephone call made by an acquaintance of Dr. Sheppard, posing as Parker, the servant. The murder itself, manipulating with the time of death to put himself, out of suspicion. Although an heinous act of greed, it was brilliantly done. The ending itself after the grand reveal of truth was equally shocking to me, Poirot suggesting that Dr. Sheppard end his life to spare Caroline the public hummiliation. I suppose in those times, turning himself in would have resulted in him getting hanged, so this might have been the better option for Dr. Sheppard. There are many theories as to what happened after Dr. Sheppard’s death. One of them is that Caroline moves out of the village and changes her name to Miss Marple and became a detective, using her natural talents of speculations and investigations. Since Christie has mentioned that Caroline was an inspiration in creating Miss Marple, this might not be that far from the truth.

I give this book a solid ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐