Summary of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
After the suicide of the widow Mrs Ferrars, the village doctor, James Sheppard, is invited to dinner by Roger Ackroyd, a wealthy widower. Ackroyd confides that he had been engaged to Mrs Ferrars and that she was being blackmailed over the poisoning of her late husband. Later that evening, Ackroyd himself is found murdered in his study. The famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is called to investigate, aided by Dr Sheppard. Through a maze of false clues, gossip, and red herrings, Poirot unravels a web of intrigue, deceit, and passion, leading to one of the most famous twists in crime fiction.
Reasons to read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
“The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” has often been called Agatha Christie’s masterpiece. In 2013, the members of the British Crime Writers’ Association voted it the greatest crime novel of all time. It is a cleverly constructed and entertaining novel, written in the finest tradition of English country house murder mystery.
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Setting: Berkshire (England, UK)
The fictional village of King’s Abbot, a quintessential English country village. It is thought to have been inspired by Sunningdale in Berkshire, where Agatha Christie was living when she wrote the book (she lived at Styles House on Charters Road).
Original title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Year of publication: 1926
Nr of pages: 252
