The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd (Collins Agatha Christie ELT Readers) (Inglés) Tapa blanda – 15 mar 2012

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The narrator, James Sheppard M.D., tells about the little village of King’s Abbot. Widow Ferrars died in her sleep from an overdose of veronal, a drug to induce sleep. Her husband died a year earlier - gossip said he was poisoned. Roger Ackroyd, an immensely rich manufacturer had thoughts of marrying widow Ferrars (they would be richer). Ackroyd was a widower without a child (Chapter 2), and lived in a mansion with relatives and servants. There is a new arrival, a stranger named Hercule Poirot. Conversations tell about the people and personalities. Later Dr. Sheppard visits Roger Ackroyd. A letter from Mrs. Ferrars brings shocking news: she poisoned her husband and was being blackmailed! Dr. Sheppard leaves Ackroyd and returns home. Later a telephone call sends him back to find Ackroyd was murdered! The police are summoned, and Poirot begins his parallel investigation. The chapters tell of the investigative procedure. Everyone connected has something to hide, and Poirot (aided by Dr. Sheppard) finds out what the secrets are.

The usual convention is to plant little clues throughout the story so an attentive reader can figure out the mystery before the last chapters. Did you? The first time I read this book I had a hunch, but it seemed crazy. Is the first clue in Chapter 3? Is there another in Chapter 17 or Chapter 24? As the suspects are eliminated who will be left? Were you shocked and surprised at the conclusion? Christie examined the fictional lives of the upper class in a small English village. Do the sins of Ralph and Flora reflect the morals of the aristocracy? Are they like the people in a TV show? Fiction must reflect reality to be believable. Reading this again after forty years I noticed the feminine characteristics of the killer. Was this symbolic for a personality that could not be mentioned? This was not her first novel but the one that made her famous. Afterwards she disappeared for a number of days. Personal problems? Mary Roberts Rinehart famous earlier novel “The Bat” had a similar plot.

The lifestyles described here were damaged by the Great Depression, and mostly killed off by WW II. Inflation has made the monetary figures far out of date. They had automobiles and telephones, but no radio [electricity?]. The comments about coldness say there was no central heating. Do the marriages without children have some hidden meaning? Or merely a way to simplify the story? There is one problem in this story. How did the killer know beforehand that an alibi was needed for the murder?