Let's Bust a Recap : The Murder of Roger Akroyd

The Murder of Roger Akroyd is one of the greatest mysteries of all time. And that's not just me talking. As recently as 2013, the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever. Serialized in 1925 and published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Akroyd is Agatha Christie's sixth published novel and third to feature our favorite little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. 

Well, I finally got around to reading it this year, completing my little three-book box set of "The World's Favourite Agatha Christie" that I purchased back in 2017 in anticipation of Murder on the Orient Express coming to the big screen. 

And it was a rollicking good time. In The Murder of Roger Akroyd, Dr. James Sheppard is assisting Hercule Poirot in the investigation and keeping account of the details in his personal diary (á la Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes) so he is our first person narrator. Akroyd turns up dead in his study—stabbed—sometime after 9:00 one evening right after the good doctor has left his presence. The doctor along with Akroyd's butler discover him after a mysterious phone call placed to the doctor at home alerts him something strange is afoot. Through a series of circumstances, Poirot is asked to help with the case though he is trying to live a quiet retired life in this supposedly sleepy little village called King's Abbot. In what I'm coming to believe is the typical Christie formula, nearly every single person is a reasonable suspect, but never fear: Hercule Poirot cannot be stumped. In this novel, we get blackmail, poisonings, suicide, love triangles, a secret marriage: it's all in there! The crazy twist ending changed the game for the genre, and The Murder of Roger Akroyd is a perpetual fan favorite the world over. 

My personal favorite aspect of this particular Christie novel is Sheppard's spinster sister Caroline whom he lives with. She's an absolute riot of a character and she singlehandedly elevated this mystery for me. Christie herself acknowledged that this character was possibly a precursor to her other famous detective Miss Marple, so now I'm pretty determined to finally choose a Miss Marple novel for my next Agatha Christie book. 

While I had a lot of fun reading The Murder of Roger Akroyd and would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a good mystery, I wouldn't say it's my new favorite. As I alluded to above, I'm starting to see a pattern to Christie's writing: multiple credible suspects, a flood of clues and red herrings to overwhelm the reader, and a brilliant resolution. I think reading one or two Agatha Christie novels a year is probably a good pace to avoid burnout, but maybe I'm judging too harshly after only reading a few (this one was my fourth). I'll be talking about another of her novels later this week which brings my Christie Total Read to five. I have about twenty-five more sitting on my shelf, and I've decided I must get to Miss Marple next.

So which one should I read?