The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery

Agatha Christie

Language: English

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: Mar 17, 2009

Description:

Voted by the British Crime Writers’ Association as the "Best Crime Novel of all Time"

Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement in one of Agatha Christie’s ten favorite novels, The Murder of Rojer Ackroyd.

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.

However the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

**

From Library Journal

This novel, written in 1927, is considered the best and most successful of the early mysteries. It met with no small outrage when it appeared, as it uses a plot device many readers thought "unfair." There is a full complement of characters populating the cozy English village of King's Abbot: Major Blunt, Colonel Carter, Miss Gannett, the butler, the housekeeper, the narrator, Dr. Sheppard, and his know-it-all sister (the precursor of Miss Marple, according to Christie), and, of course, the redoubtable Hercule Poirot and his little grey cells. There are clues with a capital C to mislead us, and the listener gets so involved with these red herrings (or not) that the very simple truth eludes the puzzler. Venerable reader Robin Bailey keeps the light, almost comic tone alive, although his voices are not particularly differentiated, and often he rushes the reading of dialog. A classic of the genre and essential for any fiction collection. Harriet Edwards, East Meadow P.L., NY

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Review

“A classic—the book has worthily earned its fame.” (Irish Independent (Ireland))

“One of the landmarks of detective literature.” (H. R. F. Keating, Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books)

“Agatha Christie had a mind like a mousetrap and taught me, in novels like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the pleasure of literary surprise.” (William Dietrich, New York Times bestselling author of the Ethan Gage Historical Adventures William Dietrich, New York Times bestselling author of the Ethan Gage Historical Adventures William Dietrich, New York Times bestselling author of the Ethan Gage)