307. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie
1926
Around 290 pages

The List rarely lets its hair down long enough to give us a decent detective story. You can see how influential this novel was on the entire genre, and it definitely makes me want to check out more of Aggy's work. In my off-hours, of course.

All Hercule Poirot wants to do is retire to a quiet English village and cultivate vegetable marrows. But crime doesn't take any gardening breaks, and his friend Roger Ackroyd is murdered. The story is narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, because doctors make the best narrators in crime stories. Hey, I don't make the rules.

You can see the vast influence this had on future novels. Christie is truly a master at weaving red herrings and important clues in her narrative. Crafting a story like this takes a lot more savvy than say, repeating the same phrase sixty times on one page (ahem Gertie).

Hercule Poirot isn't the most exciting detective ever created, but the story was stunningly original. A great choice if we can only have one Christie. 

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Took inspiration from the Charles Bravo murder, which remains unsolved.

Voted best crime novel of all time by the British Crime Writers' Association.

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