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Cover of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

  • 256 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1926
  • 221 editions
  • Free to read

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1 About this book

Belgian Inspector Hercule Poirot has retired to the countryside in the small English village of King's Abbot. Dr. Sheppard, observing his new neighbor, is sure that he must be a former hairdresser. But the brutal murder of a local squire reveals the truth: the peculiar little man is actually a detective par excellence. The Murder of the wealthy industrialist Roger Ackroyd begins the night before with the suicide of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow. Her death is believed to be an accident, until Roger Ackroyd is stabbed to death in his locked study. There are rumors she poisoned her first husband, rumors that she was being blackmailed, rumors that her secret lover was Roger Ackroyd, a man who knew too much, but no one is sure.

There's no shortage of suspects, all the members of the household stand to gain from his death, from Roger's neurotic sister-in-law who has accumulated personal debts, to a parlormaid with an uncertain history who resigned her post the afternoon of the murder.

  • Mystery
  • Murder
  • Private investigators
  • Historical fiction
  • Crime fiction
  • Mystery & detective, traditional
  • Mystery & detective, private investigators
  • Investigation

2 What to expect

A Hercule Poirot mystery set in an English village and narrated by the local doctor: a wealthy man is found stabbed in his study the day after a widow's suicide. Poirot, newly retired next door, sorts through a household of suspects, each hiding something. It is a model village whodunit, and its solution is among the most famous and most argued over in crime fiction, so avoid reading anything about it first.

Good for readers who want: a classic whodunit, an English village mystery, and a famous solution.

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4 About Agatha Christie

1890–1976

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, Lady Mallowan (née Miller, 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), usually known by her first married name, Agatha Christie, was an English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot (with the novel debut being The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920), Tommy and Tuppence (with the novel debut being The Secret…

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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