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katelyn11 's review for:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Genre: Murder mystery, Whodunnit
What I Liked
Agatha Christie is a master at whodunnits. The cast of characters is fairly typical--about 8-10 characters in suspicion of the murder. This is a Hercule Poirot mystery, but he is not the protagonist. I enjoyed viewing Poirot's process from a third party's eyes, namely, Dr. James Sheppard.
What I Didn’t Like
The murder seemed, at first, like any other Christie novel. A murder is committed. Various details are noted, some seemingly inconsequential, some outright puzzling, and others obviously a red herring. Poirot remains enigmatic as always, refusing to allow the reader into his innermost thoughts. We have breadcrumbs, which are entertaining, but also a little tedious, especially when many of Christie's books follow this same pattern.
Major Themes
Truth and Lies: It's as Dr. House says, "Everybody lies."
What I Liked
Agatha Christie is a master at whodunnits. The cast of characters is fairly typical--about 8-10 characters in suspicion of the murder. This is a Hercule Poirot mystery, but he is not the protagonist. I enjoyed viewing Poirot's process from a third party's eyes, namely, Dr. James Sheppard.
What I Didn’t Like
The murder seemed, at first, like any other Christie novel. A murder is committed. Various details are noted, some seemingly inconsequential, some outright puzzling, and others obviously a red herring. Poirot remains enigmatic as always, refusing to allow the reader into his innermost thoughts. We have breadcrumbs, which are entertaining, but also a little tedious, especially when many of Christie's books follow this same pattern.
Major Themes
Truth and Lies: It's as Dr. House says, "Everybody lies."
“Every one of you in this room is concealing something from me... It may be something unimportant--trivial--which is supposed to have no bearing on the case, but it is. Each one of you has something to hide." (82)
Unreliable Narrator: The narrator, Dr. James Sheppard, is a new voice in the anthology of Christie novels. He relays the events as he experiences them, though the reader finds out that he has been leaving out portions of his story. Any story can be spun in a certain direction, and Hercule Poirot always finds the truth.
"A very meticulous and accurate account," he said kindly. "You have recorded all the facts faithfully and exactly--though you have shown yourself becomingly reticent as to your own share in them." (142)
Writing Style
The writing style is simple and clear, told in the first-person POV, which necessarily means that details and facts are limited to the narrator's perspective. This adds an element of unknowability to the case's facts; Dr. Sheppard can't know everything about all the pieces of the case, so there is a mystery as we seek to solve it from his perspective. The dialogue, especially between Poirot and his suspects, is sharp and witty; he always knows more than he lets on to the narrator, which is frustrating but intriguing for the reader.
Tropes
- Brilliant detective
- Country house murder
- Holmes and Watson vibes
- Hidden in plain sight
Others Like This
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case by Agatha Christie
- The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
General Rating: Teen+ (14A / PG-13)
Spice Rating: None
Violence Rating: Moderate; murder, blood, descriptions of the murder as a focal narrative point
Profanity Rating: None
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder