The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

The story is told in the first person by Dr James Sheppard. It begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow who is rumored to have murdered her husband. Her death is initially believed to be suicide until Roger Ackroyd, a widower who had been expected to marry Mrs Ferrars, dies. The suspects include Ackroyd's niece, Flora, Major Blunt, a big-game hunter, Geoffrey Raymond, Ackroyd's secretary, Ralph Paton, an adopted son with gambling debts, and Parker, a snooping butler.

Warning (yet again): Wikipedia contains spoilers

The book is most notable for its surprise ending in which it is revealed that the narrator is the murderer:

I am rather pleased with myself as a writer. What could be neater, for instance, than the following: "The letters were brought in at twenty minutes to nine. It was just ten minutes to nine when I left him, the letter still unread. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle, looking back and wondering if there was anything I had left undone."

Pierre Bayard[?]'s book Who killed Roger Ackroyd? (2000) (ISBN 1-56584-677-X) discusses the novel, theorizing that Poirot actually got the solution wrong.

External Links

• First chapter (http://www.agathachristie.com/booksplays/chapters/1970.shtml)