Laura’s Rating: 3/5 Stars
I would like to thank my friend Nicole for recommending this book to me! She was one of my first ten followers who got to pick something for me to review. It also worked out well because this book was chosen for one of my book clubs so I got to discuss it and bounce ideas off my friends.
The Analysis:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has a great set up. Set in a small town ripe for gossip, a seemingly peaceful village is thrown into a frenzy over the murder of a prominent citizen. Upon further investigation, it seems the town already had its fair share of scandal. Poisoning, blackmail, drug use, and theft all occur behind closed doors. Strained family relationships and bad reputations make everyone seem suspicious as law enforcement, along with detective Hercule Poirot and Dr. Sheppard, attempt to solve the murder. The book contains some classic mystery story techniques like use of the “red herring” to throw off the reader or misdirect their attention. Every character seems suspicious or is hiding something. Hercule Poirot plays the classic role of the incredibly wise and observant detective who always manages to spot the clues everyone else has missed.
Despite the great setting and classic techniques, the story fell a bit flat for me. Something I have noticed about Agatha Christie in general, but specifically in this book, is that she purposely does not reveal all the clues and certainly none of their meanings until the end of the book. This technique works to build suspense and keep the reader guessing, but the final reveal feels like simply a release of information that has been hidden from the reader the whole time. I was able to figure out who I thought the murderer was about 60-70% of the way through the book, although the details were not clear to me until the end and I enjoyed her spin on the classic whodunit.
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. It was not bad, it was just average. Having read a few Agatha Christie books, including a couple Poirot stories, I found this to be one of the weaker books in my personal sampling of her work. The cast of characters was interesting, although some were developed far more than others and most failed to really excite me. Backstories and town gossip made for interesting side plots but many did not amount to anything of importance. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a nice example of Christie’s work with a couple interesting twists, but not a top recommendation from me.
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