Agatha Christie's genius for detective fiction is unparalleled. Her worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. No one knows the human heart or the dark passions that can stop it better than Agatha Christie. She is truly the one and only Queen of Crime.
The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd
Village rumor hints that Mrs. Ferrars poisoned her husband, but no one is sure. Then there's another victim in a chain of death. Unfortunately for the killer, master sleuth Hercule Poirot takes over the investigation.
Review
I have to say, this only being the first of Christie's novels that I have read it was truly amazing. I really do understand why people refer to her as a genius of crime fiction. I always envisioned myself avoiding the Poirot books as the TV adaptations never appealed to me. But, I have to say I loved his character.
I have to say what spoilt it slightly was I read something which said that the reason this book was so famous is that the killer had never been handled in the way that it is handled in the book before. This lead me to look for the most obscure murderer that it could be and it turned out I was right. I have to say if I didn't read this piece of information I never ever would have worked out who the murderer was. But, don't let that put you off, the murderer might be someone glaringly obvious that is pointed out to you from the beginning? That's the beauty of murder mystery, everyone will suspect someone different.
Poirot doesn't actually appear till a quarter of the way through the book, as I was reading it on the kindle I actually wondered to myself whether I was reading the right book! As the synopsis stated his involvement. It was a really interesting way to have the detective hiding within the pages of the book itself.
Although I did figure out who the murderer was I was completely enveloped in this world which Christie created. I wanted to get to know why Mrs Ferrars killed herself and why on earth people would suspect her of murdering her husband and then Ackroyd gets murdered. We are well aware of what's coming due to the title of the book but we are desperately trying to find the links to why before Poirot. But, of course Poirot has his suspicions all along.
The reason I started with this one was because it was on the 1001 books to read before you die list and as I have the complete collection of Agatha Christie in hardback it was a little daunting to choose one to start with. I am so glad I chose this one (after previously reading a collection of her short stories) and will definitely be reading many more, if not all of her books in the future.
Love these old mysteries! They're so well done and suspenseful even to modern readers:)
ReplyDeleteLovely review:)