Firstly, a big thank you to Geeta ji (@GEETA1963 ) for recommending this book to me, this is my second Chirstie book, obviously I don’t know much about murder mysteries but I will still try to tempt you to read this book.
If a lazy person like me starts reading a book at 8 in the night and finishes it by 4 in the morning without taking too many breaks, seriously its a miracle! There has to be something in this book! Even though my eyes wanted to give up, my brain dint want to, it wanted only one thing- to know who the murderer was!
So, Roger Ackroyd comes to know that his love was being blackmailed by some one and because of that she had taken her life, but not before leaving him a letter which revealed the blackmailer’s name! You would think that a man like him would take revenge after reading that letter but he doesn’t get a chance to do that because he gets murdered, and the reader is kept in the dark as to who the blackmailer is, its a typical TV serial moment when Ackroyd reads the first page of the letter and decides to read the next part later!
What I love about this book is the characterization, each character is well defined and grows with the story, my favourite is Dr.Sheppard’s(narrator) sister Caroline, she is just what almost every woman (secretly) aspires to be! :P
Hercule Poirot, comes to the scene and adds a whole new dimension to the case, his observations amuse you, his way of solving mysteries is indeed unique, he along with Dr.Sheppard give the reader many points to think about and a lot of guessing games later before the last few chapters, in your mind, you pretty much should know who the murderer is!
There are a lot of clues, some evident some hidden right from the start, which are explained in the end, if you pay attention, guessing the murderer is pretty easy I would say! If I say anything more about the plot it would take away the joy of reading the book!
There is nothing much I disliked about the book, I felt it was stretched a little in the middle, but still it dint bore me even for a second, it surely does play with your mind a little bit, again Christie succeeds in doing that! This book must be an inspiration for at least 10-12(even more) episodes of CID, trust me I am not joking!
So, who killed Roger Ackroyd? is it the blackmailer? or was there a blackmailer? is it someone who wanted Ackroyd’s money, is it one of the many servants in Ackroyd’s house? or his son? Read the book! :P