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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie


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  • 4 weeks later...

1- Who was your favourite character?

Poirot, or course! He is a very interesting character.

 

2- Was there a particular part you enjoyed more than the rest?

In Agatha Christie novels, I love it when the facts of the crime is presented first. When I get a good idea of what has happened. Cause then I can start making guesses as I go along!

 

3- Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author/has it encouraged you to read more?

No. I have read And then there were none (absolutely LOVE it!!) and the ABC-murders too. I think I have read more of her, but I can't remember now. I love these kinds of books. Murder mysteries are fun!

 

4- Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with?

No... Nothing comes to mind.

 

5- What were your thoughts about Poirot?

He is very eccentric which I like about him. Peculiar and even odd. He is a person that sticks out. I appreciate that. Also, he keeps the keys to WHY he does certain things away from the people/readers until the end. He is a tease!

 

6- Did you work out whodunnit, who was on your suspect list?

It was one terrific twist! I did not even think of that possibility! I could not come up with any good theory of whodunit in this book before the truth was revealed.

 

7- In hindsight, were there clues early on as to the guilt of Dr Sheppard?

It made sence when all pieces of the puzzle was out.

 

8- Do you feel justice was done?

As always in Agatha Christie novels, they come to an end after the killer is revealed, so we never really find out what happens with the killers. But to me that is not needed. All I want to know is who did it, how did they do it, and why. Also a confession is nice.

 

9- Overall was reading the book an enjoyable experience?

Yes. As I always am eager to find out who did it, it keeps me entertained.

 

10- Would you recommend the book and if so to whom?

Yes. To everyone actually. I really like AC's Poirot novels. But I would more likely recommend And then there were none, because that is one of my all-time favorite books!

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1- Who was your favourite character?

I did really like Caroline in this book but for me it has to be Poirot. His mannerisms and actions really bought the book to life for me.

 

2- Was there a particular part you enjoyed more than the rest

I really enjoyed the meeting of all the suspects at the end in Poirot's house. The declaration that the murderer is sat in the room is a real bombshell for many of the characters and I can imagine it would have created a lot of suspicion as they made their way back to Fernley Park that eveninig.

 

3- Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author/has it encouraged you to read more?

Crime is probably my favourite genre but I have read very few Whodunit type books before and nothing by Christie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and intend to read more of her work next year.

 

4- Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with?

As many others have mentioned I think Shepard taking his life at the end to protect his sister is a very futile gesture as surely everyone would be able to put two and two together.

 

5- What were your thoughts about Poirot?

I thought Poirot was a very interesting character and although it did initially frustrate me that he shared none of his ideas, the way they were all revealed at the end was excellent.

 

6- Did you work out whodunnit, who was on your suspect list?

Unfortunately I mentioned I was reading this book to somebody and they asked if I had worked out it was the Doctor yet. This rather spoilt this part of the book for me but I am sure I would not have guessed the killer.

 

7- In hindsight, were there clues early on as to the guilt of Dr Sheppard?

As I read most of it knowing he was guilty I was looking out for clues that would point to him and have to say there were very few. The only one that stands out is the fact something was removed from the room and his bag would have worked perfectly and the time discrepancy of his leaving the house and bumping into the passing stranger.

8- Do you feel justice was done?

No. I also don't think Caroline would have been spared the shame either.

 

9- Overall was reading the book an enjoyable experience?

Definitely, I still really enjoyed it even though I knew the killers identity.

10- Would you recommend the book and if so to whom?

Most certainly. I would recommend it most to people like myself who read a lot of modern day crime that is full of supposed twists. This book really shows up that a lot of modern crime requires the reader to accept huge anomalies in the plot to make it work. This book however has an enormous twist but one that is definitely plausible and actually well explained.

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10- Would you recommend the book and if so to whom? [/b][/u]

Most certainly. I would recommend it most to people like myself who read a lot of modern day crime that is full of supposed twists. This book really shows up that a lot of modern crime requires the reader to accept huge anomalies in the plot to make it work. This book however has an enormous twist but one that is definitely plausible and actually well explained.

 

Hi Tunn , shame you got the killer revealed early. That last point you made is a very good one. Haven't read many modern crime novels but I notice that tendency in films a lot. The plots have such huge holes in them sometimes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1- Who was your favourite character?

I felt like we didn't get to know a lot of the characters very well. I would probably go with Dr Sheppard, mostly because he managed to put it over nearly everyone. Good acting.

 

2- Was there a particular part you enjoyed more than the rest?

Nope, I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

 

3- Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author/has it encouraged you to read more?

Yes, this is the first Agatha Christie I've read, although I had a couple of others I had on my TBR pile

 

4- Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with?

As many others have said, I don't understand why Poirot thought that suicide would be a more respectable thing for Dr Sheppard to do. First, it's not more respectable. Second, everyone would obviously work it out after he killed himself.

 

5- What were your thoughts about Poirot?

While I know that Poirot is a French name, I had always imagined him to be English. I rather liked him, although he was a bit pompous. I really disagreed with his 'solution' at the end. He should have turned Sheppard over to the police.

 

6- Did you work out whodunnit, who was on your suspect list?

I was a couple of chapters into the book when I went out book shopping one day and noticed a book called Who Murdered Roger Ackroyd? I picked it up to read the blurb and there was the spoiler right on the back. :( I was devastated. If left to my own devices, I highly doubt I would have suspected Sheppard. I try not to think these things through too much; I like to just go with the flow. At least I was able to then read the book and try to pick up the clues along the way that pointed to Sheppard, but I only noticed one or two things (see next answer). I don't understand how anyone could feel hoodwinked by the twist. Isn't that the whole point? Doesn't it just show that the author did her job?

 

7- In hindsight, were there clues early on as to the guilt of Dr Sheppard?

After Ackroyd started reading the letter, there was a bit of a break and Sheppard left 10 minutes later without any explanation as to what had happened in between. Also, after the murder had been discovered (by Sheppard) but I think before everyone else got there, Sheppard had been alone in the room. When he left the room, he mentioned that he had done what little needed to be done.

 

8- Do you feel justice was done?

No. I can't believe Poirot didn't hand him over to the police! Having him kill himself wasn't going to help anyone at all, and certainly not Caroline, as Poirot seemed to think it would.

 

9- Overall was reading the book an enjoyable experience?

Absolutely. I look forward to reading many more Agatha Christie novels.

 

10- Would you recommend the book and if so to whom?

Yes, I think I'd recommend it to everyone. I can't imagine anyone not liking them. I'm going to try and get my Mum to read this book.

 

I scored 12 on that quiz, and I only finished reading it a week or two ago!

 

Poppyshake, I really liked the Mah Jong chapter. I found it pretty humorous as they talked pleasure and business at the same time. :)

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  • 2 months later...

1- Who was your favourite character?

 

The obvious answer is Caroline, because it's interesting to see Christie's first experiment with the character type that eventually became Miss Marple. But I also love watching Poirot work--making himself somewhat ridiculous to these English people, but knowing all the while that he's got them pretty much where he wants them, and only slipping up once (when he makes the point about the fingerprints and ruffles Inspector Raglan's feathers).

 

2- Was there a particular part you enjoyed more than the rest

Count me among those who enjoy the mah jongg party. In retrospect, I also love the scene where Poirot explains his methods to Dr. Sheppard - it's a brilliant piece of writing by Christie.

 

3- Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author/has it encouraged you to read more?

 

This was the last of her major works that I picked up; I'd already gotten through And Then There Were None, The Body in the Library, and Poirot's Big Five (Thirteen at Dinner, Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile). I'd also read sporadic works here and there. Recently, however, I've made a concerted effort to read all of Christie's books in order, and Ackroyd was the seventh (as a trivia note, her eighth book, The Big Four, actually takes place before Ackroyd; the stories in it appeared in serial form in the newspapers before being collected and published in book form).

 

4- Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with?

I have to admit that I had no idea what a vegetable marrow was until I found this thread. Likewise, I can't quite see how Ralph Paton meekly allowed himself to be gotten out of the way--that part didn't ring true at all.

 

5- What were your thoughts about Poirot?

I love the character, especially since I know that at least half of his schtick is an act--in Three Act Tragedy, he admits that he exaggerates his foreign-ness and conceit for effect, and to put people off their guard.

 

6- Did you work out whodunnit, who was on your suspect list?

Not even close. I knew there was a twist coming, but I thought it would be something along the lines of a character we'd seen once turning out to be the criminal. That Poirot's Hastings stand-in turned out to be the killer completely took me by surprise, and I can see why half the mystery world wanted Christie's head on a platter when this was first published--but I can also see why the other half thought it was the most brilliant deception in the history of the genre.

 

7- In hindsight, were there clues early on as to the guilt of Dr Sheppard?

Yes, but that was one of Christie's gifts - she was an expert at dropping clues within the story that you passed over without noticing.

 

8- Do you feel justice was done?

As Mrs. Ferrars says, a life calls for a life. Dr. Sheppard pays for his crime just as surely as if he'd been hanged for it, and while his suicide won't spare Caroline the grief of his death and the embarrassment of knowing her brother was a murderer, it WILL spare her having to see him arrested, tried, condemned, and publicly executed.

 

9- Overall was reading the book an enjoyable experience?

Absolutely.

 

10- Would you recommend the book and if so to whom?

Anyone who enjoys the "cozy" genre of mysteries - the Mike Hammer crowd, probably not so much.

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3- Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author/has it encouraged you to read more?

 

 

I'm not a huge fan of Agatha Christie or crim/detective novels in general, but I have strayed into that genre now and then, and I am not a stranger to Agatha Christie - "Murder on the Orient Express" is a good read but I have always loved and come back to "And Then There Were None" (or Ten Little Niggers as it was so... charmingly named for a long time)

I will problaby read these kinds of novels in the future too, but I will not strive to do it because of this book, or any other that I have read of this genre.

 

hee hee hee...to be fair, the word isn't anywhere near as loaded in the United Kingdom as it is in the United States.

 

 

4- Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with?

As a "modern woman" I struggled with the fact that women of that time didnt do much, other than spy on thier town and faint at the drop of a hat,

 

I should point out that only Mrs. Ackroyd fits the fainting description--Flora faints, too, but that's a clue that she's hiding something, because, as Poirot himself says, "young ladies do not faint nowadays without considerable provocation!"

 

 

8- Do you feel justice was done?

No, I don't see how ending your own life equals justice at all, and I don't buy the "Save Caroline from hurt" argument either... If your brother commits suicide and leaves no explanation, when to my knowledge he has never been prone to do so, well I believe that would cause more pain, and probably a much deeper pain that that of your brother going to jail, where he rightly belongs.

 

Except that he wouldn't have gone to jail. England was still about 30 years away from abolishing the death penalty when this was written. Dr. Sheppard would have been tried, condemned, and hanged--publicly. That, I think, would have been infinitely more painful to Caroline than her brother's suicide.

 

Also, even though we know that accounts of Poirot's cases are published (thanks to the sterling pen of Captain Hastings), it doesn't necessarily follow that Poirot would allow this one to be. My feeling is that he withholds it until Caroline herself dies, so that she never needs to know the whole truth.

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3. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author/has it encouraged you to read more?

I used to read crime novels all the time, but it’s not a genre I’ve read much over the last 8 or so years. It’s the second Agatha Christie I’ve read (the first was earlier this year - Cat Among the Pigeons). When I finished that one, I ended my review saying I’m not sure I’ll actively seek out any more Poirots, but if another comes my way then I may just try it out - all I can say is that if I’d read this one first then my comment would have been totally different - I loved this.

 

I'm glad you gave Christie another try. Her pre-war Poirots are considered to be her best - once the war was over, she never attained the same quality with him as she had in the past. Perhaps the character was ill-suited to the postwar world, or perhaps, having written Curtain, she couldn't make him real to herself anymore.

 

In contrast, her post-war Miss Marple books got better as she went along, because Christie allowed herself to comment on how England was changing drastically from the place she'd known when she was younger. Also, Marple finishes her "last" book, Sleeping Murder, in a vastly different psychological and physical place than Poirot is in Curtain.

 

5. What were your thoughts about Poirot?

I really liked the characterisation of him. He came across as passionate about detecting and also caring about the suspects - even if they might have been the one to do the murder (before he’d solved it) he still treated them with kindness and compassion. Sorry to harp on about the TV version, but I think David Suchet plays him so well. I did find I was hearing Suchet’s Poirot when Poirot spoke in the book (that makes sense in my head!).

 

Agreed 100%. Suchet is the definitive Poirot--easily better than Finney or Ustinov, and setting the bar too high for anyone to clear it for a long time.

 

6. Did you work out whodunnit, who was on your suspect list?

It crossed my mind at the start that Mr Sheppard might be the killer - only because I read somewhere that the murderer is nearly always the first person introduced in an Agatha Christie (I’ve no idea if this is true)

 

I can't think of a single Poirot or Marple where this is the case - in point of fact, I can think of two Poirots where the first person introduced (aside from Poirot and/or Hastings) turns out to be the victim.

 

How could Caroline not know? We already know that she’s not daft - so wouldn’t she wonder why he’d taken his life, why no murderer was announced by Poirot or the Inspector - and knowing what she’s like wouldn’t she push and push and dig and dig until she discovered just who murdered Roger Ackroyd?

 

How can she? Only two people know--Poirot and Inspector Raglan. Poirot is back in London for the start of The Mystery of the Blue Train, and Inspector Raglan isn't one to gossip. If they label Dr. Sheppard's death an accident, there's no one to gainsay them.

 

Likewise, the Ackroyd household has no reason to believe that Poirot is telling the truth when he says that the murderer is in the room in the final meeting...for all they know, this ridiculous foreigner could be trying to rattle them some more.

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6- Did you work out whodunnit, who was on your suspect list?

I am going to be a bit smug here. In the second chapter I occurred to me that the book was written from Dr Sheppards point of view, so I thought then that there must be a reason for this and that there can only be one explanation and that he himself was the murderer.

 

 

Right conclusion, but for the wrong reason. Up until now all of Christie's Poirot books had been written in the first person - that person being Hastings - and since she'd banished Hastings to South America, one could infer that she was setting up Dr. Sheppard as his replacement--after all, if Sherlock Holmes had a doctor for an assistant, why not Poirot?

 

(on a trivia note, Poirot wouldn't get the third-person treatment in a full-length novel until Murder on the Orient Express, although several short stories in Murder on the Mews are written in the third person).

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I think thats the beauty of Christies writing in that I could be anyone. I also think if you were to re-read any of her books years after you first read them you would probably still suspect all the same people again even though you should remember who did it.

 

My only complaint with AC books so far is that she always introduces so many characters early on that I have to keep pen and paper beside me to make little notes to remind me who is who and how they are connected. I have just started "And Then There Were None" and I am already confused with all the people.

 

If you can find some of the Pocket Books editions from the 70s, they add a list of characters in order of appearance. It helps a LOT, believe me.

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If you can find some of the Pocket Books editions from the 70s, they add a list of characters in order of appearance. It helps a LOT, believe me.

 

They do sound helpful, thank you. You seem to know a lot about Agatha Christie have you studied her or is it just a general interest? Welcome to the forum Jim in NYC.

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They do sound helpful, thank you. You seem to know a lot about Agatha Christie have you studied her or is it just a general interest? Welcome to the forum Jim in NYC.

 

Thank you!!!!! Just a general interest, although I have done some background reading on her life, and it's fascinating material.

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Thank you!!!!! Just a general interest, although I have done some background reading on her life, and it's fascinating material.

 

I am going to assume that you have read her autobiography. I would like to read it at some point but I don't know if I should wait until I have read all (or the majority of) her books or if I could read it a lot sooner than that. I don't want to read it if there is anything that will influence my opinion of any of the books. So far I have only read about 7 or 8 of hers.

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I am going to assume that you have read her autobiography. I would like to read it at some point but I don't know if I should wait until I have read all (or the majority of) her books or if I could read it a lot sooner than that. I don't want to read it if there is anything that will influence my opinion of any of the books. So far I have only read about 7 or 8 of hers.

 

Actually, I've never read her autobiography. I happened to pick up this book at a secondhand store, and it makes a very good guidebook to where the author's head was when she was writing her books:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Agatha-Christie-Companion-Dennis-Sanders/dp/0425118452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333293035&sr=8-1

 

Quite honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to read her autobiography until I'd finished reading her books; just judging from her quotes in the Companion, I don't always agree with her evaluation of her books, and I'm not sure I'd want to be influenced by her opinions before I've read the books. She calls The Mystery of the Blue Train "easily the worst book" she'd written, but I've always found it to be fun--not on the same level as Murder on the Orient Express, but not significantly below than Death in the Clouds or Dumb Witness.

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