Protected: Four Years of Marriage
October 27, 2022
Protected: Halloween weekend
October 30, 2022
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
★★★★☆
256 pages
Published: First published June 7th, 1926
Plot
Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.
However the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot. (Goodreads)
Main Characters
- Poirot – the famous detective who, in this story, is hiding out in retirement and almost confused as a hairdresser 😆
- Roger Ackroyd – a wealthy friend of Poirot’s; he was widowed but hoped to marry again before he is murdered
- Mrs. Ferrars – the woman that Roger Ackroyd had hoped to marry, she dies not long before Roger
- Dr. Sheppard – the narrator of the story and the doctor of the village
- Caroline – Dr. Sheppard’s sister, a big gossip in the village
- Inspectors:
- Inspector Davis – small town investigator
- Inspector Raglan – larger town investigator
- Colonel Melrose – county inspector
- Roger Ackroyd’s family:
- Cecil – Rogers sister in law. Lives with him and relies on money from him, thinks she deserves more
- Flora – Roger’s niece/Cecil’s daughter, very into being stylish, etc. wants material things
- Ralph Paton – Roger’s stepson
- Other people in Roger’s house:
- Parker – Roger’s butler
- Raymond – Roger’s secretary
- Miss Russell – Roger’s housekeeper
- Ursula Bourne – Roger’s parlormaid
- Major Blunt – Roger’s friend that is staying at the house, into hunting
My Review
I always love reading Poirot! I will be sad when there are no more left that I haven’t read! They are always a little confusing…. Until they aren’t. This was no different. I think this actually ended up being one of my favorite Poirot books because it had a slightly different feel to it?
Likes
- Poirot’s character
- So many twists and turns and not knowing who the killer was
Dislikes
- I wish there was more of Poirot’s perspective in this one
- So many characters to keep track of!
Spoilers
*SPOILERS, click here to view spoilers – Do NOT expand this section unless you want to know the spoilers!*
The narrator, Dr. Sheppard, is the murderer. He was blackmailing Mrs. Farras, who had poisoned her prior husband. Mrs. Farras commited suicide because of it. Dr. Sheppard assumed she had confided in Roger Ackroyd that she was being blackmailed, so Dr. Sheppard kills him by stabbing him. He uses a Dictaphone and alarm clock system to play Roger’s recorded voice so it sounds like he was alive later than he actually was. He fakes the phone call from Parker so he can be first on scene to create false footprints to implicate Ralph Paton and then slip the Dictaphone into his doctor’s bag without being noticed. The end of the book, Dr. Sheppard ends up using the book as his suicide note.
The man walking through the forest turns out to be Miss Russel’s son who is addicted to heroine. Flora lied about saying goodnight to her uncle because she had been stealing money out of his bedroom. Flora is never truly engaged to Ralph Patton. Ralph is already secretly married to the parlormaid, Ursula – but was worried his uncle wouldn’t approve so kept it secret. Ralph’s disappearance was arranged by Dr. Sheppard – he was in a mental health hospital hiding out because it didn’t look good for him with the evidence. Poirot gets him out.