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 . . .
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the only one of Christie's books to make it onto the wretched "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list... so, of course, I've been putting it off. Those kinds of lists tend to be rubbish. Sorry, but nobody needs to read Herman Melville and he appears on the list twice. But, it is Agatha and it was one her personal top ten of her own books and it is the next on the list for reading her novels in publication order ... so ... here we are.
Even though it is only the third Poirot novel, it finds him having retired to the small village of King's Abbot where the only person who knows him is his old friend, Roger Ackroyd. Even his neighbors -- Dr James Sheppard and his sister, Caroline -- only know that he's a foreigner, though they do speculate on his past.
"My dear Caroline," I said. "There's no doubt at all about what the man's profession has been. He's a retired hairdresser. Look at that moustache of his."
I may have spurted some coffee.
Roger Ackroyd is, of course, murdered not long after the apparent suicide of his fiancée, Mrs Ferrars (who is said to have poisoned her first husband about a year prior). His niece, Flora, enlists Dr Sheppard's help in persuading the elusive Poirot into helping solve the mystery. She fears that her fiancé -- who also happens to be Ackroyd's stepson -- is being suspected and set up to take the fall.
Got all that?
You sure?
Seeing as how Poirot and Ackroyd had been acquainted, he agrees to help for the sake of helping, not as a paid job (he is, retired, after all).
"Not that I do not care for money." His eyes showed a momentary twinkle. "Money, it means much to me and always has done. No, if I go into this, you must understand one thing clearly. I shall go through with it to the end. The good dog, he does not leave the scent, remember! You may wish that, after all, you had left it to the local police."
"I want the truth," said Flora, looking him straight in the the eyes.
"All the truth?"
"All the truth."
Of course, being Poirot, he dives right in and what he is asking and why does not always make sense to those around him -- or, indeed, the reader. It is one of the many charms of Poirot, after all.
"Everything is simple, if you arrange the facts methodically."
And, with that, I will go back to reading and you can get to the Book Beginnings and Friday 56 ... and 156 .... since Christie always deserves more than just two blips. She also deserves at least a dozen more spots on that fool list.
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