Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Author: Agatha Christie
Series: Hercule Poirot #4
Rating:
Roger Ackroyd was a man who knew too much.
He knew the woman he loved had poisoned her first husband. He knew someone was blackmailing her ― and now he knew she had taken her own life with a drug overdose.
Soon the evening post would let him know who the mystery blackmailer was. But Ackroyd was dead before he’d finished reading it ― stabbed through the neck where he sat in his study…
MY THOUGHTS
*Spoiler alert*
A classic Agatha Christie novel that had been regarded as one of her most well-known, popular, and successful work. Which to this day still receive praises from critics, adulating its simplistic yet deceiving writing style, along with its twist ending, of course.
Everything about this book truly transforms the genre by showing the reading world what else can be done with the detective murder mystery story formula and narration in general.
I came into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it, except for the fact that this is one of Christie’s most best-selling books and that it is really good. I’m so glad I didn’t spoil myself, because that twist was one of the best that I’ve experienced in a long time.
I probably re-read the book three times by now because I really had been trying to find signs that I mislooked before realizing Dr. Sheppard as the actual murder. It’s hard to find even after the revelation because the hints are REALLY subtle. There are, however, many ‘terms’ and choice of words our deceiving narrator used that made me realized how looking at it differently, meant differently and can be viewed in a different tone.
I can see why others criticize Christie’s writing style through this and going as far as calling this ending a cheat. I’ll admit, the foreshadowing really wasn’t clear, but it’s still there. It definitely wasn’t just put in there out of nowhere, and I can tell how Christie actually put hard work for this ending’s reveal, which is why I don’t really view this as a cheat.
For example, when Hercule Poirot starts explaining his deductions, he stated on every important thing: the situation of the body being discovered was done so in order for the murderer to put his or her alibi to use. In other words, in murder cases like this, from what I learned in all the murder mysteries I studied, is that the person who discovers the murder is always the murderer.
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING. I loved it so much. You don’t see a lot of classic murder mystery books like this anymore, which is why I’m reading backward on the timeline. I really suggest this to everyone. Don’t hesitate to read it! This will make you fall in love with the genre, like me (I promise XD).