The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha ChristieMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
2021 Re-Read
It has only been 4 years since I first read this mystery, yet I had no clear recollection of the identity of the murderer! My only clear memory was Poirot’s hurling of the vegetable marrow in the first few pages. What a detail to remember.
Now that I've read more of Agatha Christie's work, I think I appreciated this book more than I did on my first pass. I'm pretty sure that the references to Hastings went unremarked then, especially when Poirot asks Dr. Sheppard if he has a penchant for auburn haired women. Which is very appropriate since the doctor becomes our Hastings substitute in this volume. Dr. Sheppard is unusual in his dispassionate appraisal of the case. The strongest emotion he displays is annoyance with his sister. During this reading, I really noticed his strange detachment.
As I progressed, my hazy memory began to clear and I became quite certain that I knew how things ended. Although I had who dunnit, I hadn't recalled why or how, so it was still pleasurable to read to the end to be certain.
Original Review
M. Poirot, what were you thinking? Retiring to a small village to grow vegetable marrows? I too would hurl them in fits of regret! As if marrows could suitably engage those little grey cells!
Excellent depiction of the competitive sport of gossip. Small communities everywhere suffer from it. That is one of the reasons that I came to live in a city—I can actually keep my private life relatively private!
Dame Agatha really did set the patterns for current mystery literature, didn’t she? Very, very enjoyable and as usual, I had no idea who the perpetrator was until M. Poirot did the big reveal.
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