Monday, December 5, 2011

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1927)

About the book: M. Poirot, the hero of The Mysterious Affair at Stiles [sic] and other brilliant pieces of detective deduction, comes out of his temporary retirement like a giant refreshed, to undertake the investigation of a peculiarly brutal and mysterious murder. Geniuses like Sherlock Holmes often find a use for faithful mediocrities like Dr. Watson, and by a coincidence it is the local doctor who follows Poirot round, and himself tells the story. Furthermore, as seldom happens in these cases, he is instrumental in giving Poirot one of the most valuable clues to the mystery.

My thoughts: This story is told from the point of view of the village doctor who becomes a sort of Dr. Watson to M. Hercule Pirot. It begins with one death and quickly to another, that of Roger Ackroyd. As you follow the clues with the good Dr. and Pirot suspicions are cast on several of the characters. At the end Pirot calls them all to his house and announces he knows who the murderer is and gives him/her 24 hours to confess. What I didn't expect was the shocker of a twist after this announcement. Wow! 


3 comments:

Bev Hankins said...

I love all the different twists that Agatha Christie came up with. She was truly a Queen of Crime.

I've got you updated!

Carol said...

Ah, a classic for a reason. I do love Christie!

samantha.1020 said...

I love Agatha Christie!!! I really enjoyed this book as well other than some where (and who knows where) I had read about the twist in the ending of this book. So I wasn't as surprised as I would have liked to been when the murderer was revealed. I still really liked this book though!