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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

By Agatha Christie

(139)

| Mass Market Paperback | No ISBN

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Book Description

Mrs. Ferrars poisoned her housband...

But no one suspected her except her blackmailer... until she committed suicide, leaving a letter to the man she loved.

Roger Ackroyd never finished reading it...

For the blackmailer had returned to a new crime, murder.

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Critics

An ingenious reissue

If all her mysteries were as ingenious as this usual country house Cluedo plot, I could understand why Christie is still Britain's most popular detective writer. HarperCollins is in the process of reissuing and repackaging all her books unabridged wi ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

7 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

Strepitoso! Ora capisco chi dice quanto sia innovativo questo romanzo! Non voglio dire di più...
Each one of you has something to hide
Messieurs et mesdames, I tell you, I mean to know. And I shall know -- in spite of you all.

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♪ Guldo ☯ said on Feb 21, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

A Must-read for Poirot fans

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Gravitino said on May 15, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

One of Agatha Christie's masterpiece

This book is generally considered the Agatha Christie's masterpiece, as it has many peculiar features, such as the first person's narrator who tells the story by his own point of view, but it is not a so called omniscient narrator as it is generally used by the writer. Secondly, there happens to be ... (continue)

This book is generally considered the Agatha Christie's masterpiece, as it has many peculiar features, such as the first person's narrator who tells the story by his own point of view, but it is not a so called omniscient narrator as it is generally used by the writer. Secondly, there happens to be this meeting between Poirot, just 'landed' to a new life, such as that of an old retired private detective, and the doctor, who will be the narrator of the events and who resembles - as Poirot often puts it - in some cases to his old friend Hastings, who accompanied him in most cases he had to deal with. Apparently there are similarities between Hastings and doctor Shephard, the narrator of the story, because they seem to be quite intuitive, so occasionally and unconsciously providing Poirot with useful cues for solving the case, but at the end of the story it will be discovered the complete difference between the two men, especially from the moral point of view.
I've got to tell that I read this book the first time in italian some years ago, and was stroke by the profound intelligence of the writer at building a story like that. Right now that I am reading the novel for the second time, in the original language in that case, some further considerations come up to my mind. Firstly, this story reveals, maybe better than other Agatha's novels, her deep humanity and high consideration of ethics not only in the murderer himself, but also in the characters she depicts and analizes. Secondly, Poirot shows here, as it will be fully developed in all novels, a great ability of inquiry in and explore the real human nature of people, besides their bourgeois manners and habits. Thirdly, and this is what I think could be considered the unique feature of this story, there is the first-person narrative, that apparently could be undervalued, but it is actually of great importance. I am deeply convinced that this narrative is used by Agatha to make the case more complex for the reader to solve, because, differently from other novels, in which there is this impersonal way to narrating facts that takes into consideration different perspectives to the same fact but does not interfere with the general view of the events. Instead here, the perspective of the narrator coincides with that of Doctor Shephard, who looks at people and reality surrounding him in a particular and selective way, not allowing us to see every aspect of the case.
Finally, I love very much this book, not more than other Christie's books, but I appreciate it maybe a bit more because it analizes human nature and its ethics in a deeper and more complex manner.

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Elisastrozzi said on Dec 21, 2011 about the eBook edition | Add your feedback

It's a classic written in 1926. Where was I?

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jelabino said on Apr 8, 2010 | Add your feedback

Engaging read, even if I knew beforehand who the murderer was - but that doesn't spoil the book, it just gives the reader a different perspective.
But I was surprised to find some confusion in the narration: more than once Roger Ackroyd and Ralph Paton are described as uncle and nephew, while ... (continue)

Engaging read, even if I knew beforehand who the murderer was - but that doesn't spoil the book, it just gives the reader a different perspective.
But I was surprised to find some confusion in the narration: more than once Roger Ackroyd and Ralph Paton are described as uncle and nephew, while they are stepfather and adopted son.

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ary29 said on Jun 2, 2009 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Enjoyable, but had it figured from chapter 1!

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sid_rw said on Jul 3, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback