The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: I didn't need a one line summary for this book, just the one word. For whatever reasons, this is the first Christie book I've read. I've seen some of the films made from her work, the best, IMO, being Witness For The Prosecution, directed by Billy Wilder. I had heard that this was a good one to start with, and is it ever. It is not only terrifically plotted, but it has great characters, sparkling dialogue, and it is beautifully written and constructed. I'm not saying anything else other than it's a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best mystery novels
Review: Roger Ackroyd is murdered and you read on as Hercule Poirot tries to discover who did it. I won't spoil the surprising ending but Agatha Christie shows imagination in selecting the villain.

Rating:
Summary: One of Christie's best!
Review: Not quite "And Then There Were None," but certainly one of Christie's outstanding works. This is a must-read for all Poirot fans!

Rating:
Summary: A mystery that is never solved by the reader
Review: Agatha Christie is noted for great mysteries. This is probably her best. It is a mystery that the reader will never solve without the help of Ms. Christie--even though all the clues are given. It is fun to read the book and then check back to the portions that made the murder so unsolvable. If you haven't read it, do so; if you have read it, do it again.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: The plot is awesome and it contains a great ending - that I did not see coming. A few things that make Agatha Christie great are: (1) her writing is lean and spare; (2) her characters all have an important role to play; (3) she has a sense of humor; and (4) there are no silly chase scenes or senseless violence. A thoughtfully written mystery.

Rating:
Summary: THE Christie Book
Review: This is the most controversial mystery novel of the 20th century. It nearly got Agatha Christie kicked out of the Detection Club (an organization of writers who agreed to play fair). It put her on the map. It's her best work - ever.

The book is a first person account of a Hercule Poriot mystery, done by Doctor James Sheppard, a country doctor serving his community. He was there from almost the beginning, and his narrative provides a wonderful account of the murder of his friend, Rodger Ackroyd.

Rodger Ackroyd's female friend took her own life. She wrote a letter to him before she did so, naming the man who ruined her life - a blackmailer who knew she killed her first husband. Rodger read the letter to Dr. Sheppard, but wouldn't continue when he realized a blackmailer would be exposed because of it. Dr. Sheppard begged him to continue and get the name - to no avail.

Ackroyd didn't comply. James Sheppard left and went home, only to get a myserious phone call telling him Rodger had been murdered. Murdered he was - and the letter was missing!

Enter Sheppard's neighbor, Hercule Poriot. Dr. Sheppard plays Dr. Watson, following the sleuth around and recording what he finds. From a missing son to a married maid; from the theft of household money.

In the end, Poroit invites all the cast to a room where he talks about the case, and says he has a solution - which he will reveal to the police in 24 hours. The only way for an innocent man to be saved was for the real killer to confess one way or another... and even though Dr. Sheppard has all the facts of the case, he can't see how Poriot could put them all together into a surprising solution of the case.

In short, if you want a book that will shock you, read this one. Well crafted, with devious plot devices, Christie showed her genius for detective fiction with this book. It was a work of genius because she had the imagination to do something amazingly original. It may have nearly got her kicked out of the Detection Club, but history has sided with her - she was right all along. This is her most classic work of all time.

Rating:
Summary: A Master at the Top of Her Game
Review: Agatha Christie, the doyenne supreme of the English mystery novel, wrote in the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of the most stunning examples of the genre.

Detective mysteries reached its apotheosis in the first few decades of the 20th century. Edgar Allen Poe is credited with inventing the genre, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with the iconical Sherlock Holmes created the eccentric detective and Dorothy Sayers for her erudite writing and witty portrayal of Lord Peter. But only Agatha Christie managed to create not one but two supremely popular and fascinating detectives, Miss Marple, the sweet and sharp elderly spinster and Hercule Poirot, that finicky, green-eyed retired Belgian sleuth.

In 1927, Christie was part of a "Detective Writer's Club" that included many prominent writers, including Ms. Sayers. They met and wrote to one another and compiled a list of "rules" for the detective genre. In fact, they collaborated on a book called the "Admiral's Club", a mediocre result but fascinating for its provenance.

Yes, the denouement to the Murder of Roger Ackroyd is surprising, but the Detectives Club, after much discussion claimed that Christie had played fair, and critics should accept that they had been hoodwinked.

Don't think about this when you read the book. Enjoy the characters, some flat, but still appealing. The servants with something to hide, the pretty niece, the handsome blackguard adopted son, the stuffed-up Colonel who talks endlessly about his days at the Shanghai Club and one of the most developed characters - the gossipy, autocratic and ultimately kindly spinster sister, Caroline.

Enjoy the setting - the English village in the 1920s. The new technologies that seem so quaint to us and yet still prevalent in our own societies. The gossip, the lovers triangles, the class snobbery. There's something so delicious about these closed-door mysteries with characters running around a large home, each with their own secrets. Of course, only Hercule Poirot can illuminate and integrate these secrets to reveal the truth and an unexpected quality of mercy.

Hercule Poirot - that lovable prima donna, forever trying to retire, and like Don Corleone, finding himself "dragged back in". Of course he loves the chase. And like one of the characters said about him, he is never more dangerous then when he's playing the "ridiculous mounteback".

Don't read this first if you've never read Agatha Christie. Read Five Little Pigs, The Murder on the Orient Express, The Body in the Library,Ten Little Indians and other masterpieces. Then you will appreciate the number of ways she managed to outwit us. Read "Roger Ackroyd" once for fun and twice for a master class in detective ficton writing.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best examples of Christie's genius
Review: Truely one of the most surprising endings of a mystery book. Even if you're familliar with Christie's writing, this will very likely throw you off your feet.
The story itself is a pleasent one, written in Christie's usual light manner. There are the colorful English characters, and all flows well enough, until the ending slaps you in the face like a full sized vegetable marrow. If you've guessed the ending, my hat's off to you. If not, don't feel bad, I've not met the person who has.
If you'd like, you can keep your eye out for the clues - they are there; very very subtle, but planted in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Speechless...
Review: I don't think anyone could have predicted the way this ended. I knocked myself on the head several times after realizing the truth. Christie is as michevious as they get. The plot is essentially about a man(Roger) who is murdered and Poirot(who came for a 'vacation') decides to try and solve it. Everyone in the town has a secret they are hiding- but one of them has the worst of all.


There should be no contreversy surronding it in my mind. I think it was cleverly thought out.

BEST EVER AS OF NOW( I still have a few to read)

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: The plot is awesome and it contains a great ending - that I did not see coming. A few things that make Agatha Christie great are: (1) her writing is lean and spare; (2) her characters all have an important role to play; (3) she has a sense of humor; and (4) there are no silly chase scenes or senseless violence. A thoughtfully written mystery.