“It occurred to me there was not much which escaped Hercule Poirot.” (AC novel 6-book7; Poirot 3+1)
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Original title: ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd‘, Collins published this classical 'whodunit' first in 1926 (and again in 1936, within the Detective Story Club, along with the movie version starring Austin Trevor as Poirot - play and film go by ‘Alibi‘); the German title is ‘Alibi‘ (1928). This is Agatha Christie‘s 6th novel (7th book, where you have to count in the short stories collection ‘Poirot investigates‘). It is Christie’s third novel featuring Hercule Poirot (4th book; again including the short stories).
My edition is from May 2016 – a ‘facsimile edition‘ to reproduce the original „The Detective Club‘ look and feel to commemorate the 90th birthday of this novel (though it would have been only the 80th of the Detective Club layout, but, fine); a very nice and inexpensive hardcover re-edition indeed with an extra introduction (though I rather recommend to read that after the actual story).
Same as with Sherlock Holmes and same as with the very first novel written by AC, ‘The missing link‘, the starting point is that the story comes as a written report, this time, not from Hastings (who is reported to live in the Argentine), but from Doctor Shepard. The Doctor tells the story as first-person narrator and soon finds himself to in the role normally embodied by Hastings – aide to the great master detective Hercule Poirot. He is to notice more than once ‘It occurred to me there was not much which escaped Hercule Poirot.’ p. 195
Up to the murder of wealthy Roger Ackroyd, Hercule Poirot had been quietly enjoying retirement in the small (fictional) village of King’s Abbot . Now he is summoned back to business by Flora, Ackroyd’s niece, who hopes to take suspicion off her fiancé Ralph. The young man happens to be both Ackroyd’s stepson and adopted son – and potential heir. The reader learns that there are suspects in abundance and most persons involved have something to hide for a variety of reasons. There are Flora and her mother, widow to Ackroyd’s late brother, both as much in lack of money as is Ralph. Guest and big-game hunter Hector Blunt probably had his issues as did the other members of the household – why was Ackroyd angry with Ursula Bourne, the maid? And what is the story behind Ackroyd’s secretary Raymond or his butler Parker? Did not the housekeeper Miss Russel have a special interest in him? Is there any link to Mrs Ferrar’s death? And what is the connection to a wedding ring, a quill, a phone call and a mysterious stranger?
I admit to enjoy the Christie-touch with the classical gathering of suspects at the end – in this case, with some extras. Ninety years and this classic detective novel is still - rightfully! - considered a masterpiece. For a Poirot novel, there might yet be more entertaining ones (I admit to generally preferring Miss Marple over Hercule Poirot). What makes this book stand out still:
First, this marks Christie’s real breakthrough.
Second, its solution and ending were at that time both, controversial and still rather innovative – even today, one cannot help to experience the effect. It even contradicted to the self-imposed rules of ‘The Detective Club‘ and thus stirred some alienation between the club and Christie (no, I will NOT spoil how and why…)
Contemporary:
Well, 90 years show, but surprisingly little. The vocabulary includes wireless for radio, mail coming in more than once a day and at predictable hours (I would love that) and some old-fashioned wording the likes of ‘bunkum‘ – and one sentence that would not pass editing today, made by Doctor Sheppard and concerning Mrs Ackroyd’s debtors ‘They are usually Scotch gentleman, but I suspect a Semitic strain in their ancestry.” p 135 Do not forget, this is 1926 - Christie wrote another novel that was first called 'Ten Little Niggers'.
Trivia (taken from Wikipedia)
The novel was voted the best crime novel of all time in 2013.
Due to the relatively innovative ending, the novel is considered to be one of Christie's best known and most controversial ones, and had quite an impact on the genre.
According to Christie’s 1977 autobiography, the original idea of the novel came from her brother-in-law, James Watts of Abney Hall, who brought up the basic idea of the role of the murderer (sorry, any further explanation of mine would go to far).
The novel followed a first publication as a multi-part serialisation in newspapers in the year before with slightly different chapters and some minor amends (mostly due the character of serialisation; what starts in the novel like ‘he said’ would have been specified in the serialisation as e.g. ‘Poirot said’, of course).
The dedication “To Punkie, who likes an orthodox detective story, murder, inquest, and suspicion falling on every one in turn!” is directed to Christie’s eldest sibling Margaret (Madge) ‘Punkie’ who had once challenged her younger sister to not being able to write a classic detective story – indeed, Margaret even wrote a play herself.
So, despite for some lengthier portions to the novel, it still IS highly entertaining, off-standard in its solutions even today – and simply mandatory to read in its importance to both the genre in general and the works and success of Agatha Christie in particular.