Murder of Roger Ackroyd

 

Angela and I recently discovered a podcast that discusses each of Dame Agatha's novels individually. We've started reading the novels themselves, then listening to the applicable episode together.

Also, we recently mentioned The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in the Bible study I teach, talking about how shocking people found the ending without giving the ending away. That got four others in the group to read the book themselves.

The 1926 novel (the third featuring Hercule Poirot--though Poirot had also appeared in a number of short stories) really is one of the best classic mysteries ever written. Both Angela and I had read it before, but we both enjoyed re-reading it.

We usually re-read classic mysteries because the protagonists (in this case, Hercule Poirot) are such great characters that we love re-visiting them. The first read is always the best, when we don't know whodunit. But we can still go back again and again. We like being metaphorically at the side of Poirot, Miss Marple, Holmes, Peter Whimsey and the other great detectives. They are the coolest people we know.

 

That's true in the case of "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." We love hanging out with Poirot, so can still enjoy the book even though we know how it ends.

 

But this is a novel where finding out who did it the first time you read it was downright shocking. Christie breaks the rules of traditional fair-play mysteries in this book, but STILL gives us a fair-play mystery. All the clues are there and Poirot's summation is solid.

 

So, when re-reading it as I just did, it is particularly fun to spot the subtle indications that point to the killer seeded throughout the book. This might be one of the most brilliantly constructed mystery plots ever written and returning to it deepened my appreciation for it.