The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

I cut my mystery book teeth on Agatha Chrisite. I had read this one many years (decades?) ago, and remembered very little. This was the April choice for the library mystery book club. We agreed that we found this one a bit tedious at times with the amount of minutiae and details. It had very interesting character developments. Good clues were given throughout and summarized a couple times, and there wasn't anything hidden at the end, even though the murderer was a surprise.

POSSIBLE SPOILER - I found the timetable of the murder and the alabis of the suspects, that Poirot developed, a little difficult to buy. Every suspect was able to account for their time, up to the minute, for the 60-90 minutes surrounding the murder. Of the eight or so persons involved, would they really know their whereabouts and exact times. Wrist watches were just becoming popular in the 1920s (this was written in 1926)and pocket watches were most popular at that time. It's hard imagine someone looking at their watch, wrist or pocket, at the exact time they knocked on Ackroyd's study door, and then again looking at their watch at the moment they left the study to go upstairs, then again the moment they entered their bedroom, and then again when they came downstairs to go to the kitchen. This annoyance aside, I enjoyed this. I will continue to read and re-read more of Christie. ( )

James Sheppard, medico di una cittadina, è la voce narrante di questo romanzo.
Come dice il titolo stesso, Roger Ackroyd morirà, e solo la fortunata coincidenza di avere Poirot nella città porterà alla soluzione del caso.
Soluzione come sempre sorprendente e, almeno fino alle ultime pagine, inaspettata.

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James Sheppard, doctor of a small town, is the narrator of this novel.
As the title says, Roger Ackroyd has to die, and only the lucky presence of Hercule Poirot in town will bring the solution of the murder.
A quite surprising solution and, at least until the last pages, unexpected. ( )

I really didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I mean, I like crime/mystery fiction, especially as something to take a break from literature or heart-breaking stuff (Guy Gavriel Kay, I'm looking at you). But I didn't expect to like Agatha Christie's writing so much. This first exposure to her work is due to my Crime Fiction class, which now I'm really excited about, and I'm probably going to look out for more.

It was cleverer than I expected. I'm generally able to guess the plot and motivations and all of that, no matter what kind of fiction I'm reading, but Agatha Christie's pretty good at misdirection. I think I did get there before the reveal -- but only a little!

I liked the way she described things and set up characters. I particularly liked the character of Caroline, somehow, though I can't put my finger on why. She was an essentially good-hearted busybody. The narrative voice is wonderful, misleading you so well without ever seeming to.

I wasn't actually that interested in Poirot himself. I found him a little irritating, actually, and I don't particularly feel the need for the next Agatha Christie book I read to be another with him in it.

I hope I have this good an experience with all of the crime fiction on my list! ( )

Christie is such fun and this made for good escapist reading. ( )

Excellent! Truly surprising and classic. The audiobook is especially fun... take on your next road trip.
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