Agatha Christie Lovers discussion

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - originally published in 1926. Features Hercule Poirot.

This discussion may contain spoilers!

ooh. i will get this at the weekend form the library and join in the discussion. x

I have this one too! The December and January I had to find.

This is one of my favs!, I'm looking forward to reading it again!

Sorry, we need to move this book to March. Just found out Poirot Investigates should be our January book.

I'm going to start it this weekend =)

I love The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I know it almost by heart :)

I've read it about 3 times in total. I need to spend a weekend and get caught up.

This one is in my top five of A.C.'s work.

Love this one!! The ending definitely surprised me the first time I read it! :-)

1972booklover wrote: "Love this one!! The ending definitely surprised me the first time I read it! :-)"

Agree!!, didn't expect that ending at all :o)

it was obvious who didn't do it, but who did was a shock

Yes, well, I think that the annoy the doctor felt about the shoes it was too much, but, at the end, it was clear the reason of that.

Ps. I wasn't participating the past weeks because I had a lot of work with moving house (finally, I must say, that small apartment I was living in was made me claustrofobic) and, because I started in a new job... at the University's Library... I'm so happy :D

Wow! I was not expecting that ending! Are there any other AC books with an unreliable narrator like this one?
PS. Congrats on the new house and job, Martha.

When the book was first published, Christie got a lot of negative reviews for her method of using the narrator as the killer.........but the public and time have negated that attitude and TMofRA now stands as a classic of mystery writing. You can re-read it, knowing who is guilty, and still enjoy the story.....what a great book!!!

Jill wrote: "When the book was first published, Christie got a lot of negative reviews for her method of using the narrator as the killer.........but the public and time have negated that attitude and TMofRA no..."
Yeah, my husband was REALLY irritated with the ending, but I loved it. Although, I hate how AC uses suicide as a way out of the consequences.

Anne wrote: "Wow! I was not expecting that ending! Are there any other AC books with an unreliable narrator like this one?
PS. Congrats on the new house and job, Martha."

Anne, there's another book of this type, but, if I told you wich one, it may be a spoiler...

Martha, now you got me thinking which one is it... could you please sent me the name of it in a message? please? :)

Oh don't tell me! I loved the idea of the narrator being the murderer!

Funny we should mention the narrator being the murderer since I just finished a book of short stories by Peter Lovesey, one of which uses that device. It was fun.

by Peter Lovesey

Oh are those good? Dr. Sheppard did cross my mind for a fleeting moment but it was more of a 'what if' instead of an 'I think'. And there was that one sentence which seemed odd to me.

I just finished this one and absolutely loved it! I had some suspicions, but didn't really know for sure it was Dr. Sheppard until the end, when everyone were coming together for the meeting. This one had me engrossed from the very beginning and what a twist! Right up there with And Then There Were None.

This is what Wikipedia says about this book:

It is one of Christie's best known and most controversial novels, its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre. The short biography of Christie which is included in the present UK printings of all of her books states that this novel is her masterpiece. Howard Haycraft, in his seminal 1941 work, Murder for Pleasure, included the novel in his "cornerstones" list of the most influential crime novels ever written. The character of Caroline Sheppard was later acknowledged by Christie as a possible precursor to her famous detective Miss Marple.

I was so looking forward to reading this when I first got my hand on it all those years ago. It was, after all, Christie's acknowledged masterpiece.

Imagine my disappointment when I got whodunit straight away. (Something I don't think I've ever done with any of her other books.)

There's a single line from the doctor early on (perhaps in the first chapter or scene), "I did what I had to do", that gave it away. I spent the rest of the book saying to myself, "please don't let it be him, please don't let it be the doctor. Please let me be wrong!" :)

I'm definitely not the sort who likes to beat the sleuth!

It's fun though Lynda to try to figure out who did it in mystery books while you're reading it :)

Of course, Carolyn, hence my disappointment when I thought I had worked out whodunit within the first few pages.

someone spoiled this for me a few weeks ago (the narrator is the killer). is it still worth reading?

I always think a Christie novel is worth reading. I have often reread ones that I remember the ending to, because the writing is so wonderful. There are so many, that I also often read one that I haven't read in a long time, and don't recall the solution to. In your case, since you haven't read it before, I think you might still find it interesting as to how she presents it.

Rob wrote: "someone spoiled this for me a few weeks ago (the narrator is the killer). is it still worth reading?"

yes, it's a must read.
If you know the ending, you can read it and see that the facts were in front of you all the time

Rob wrote: "someone spoiled this for me a few weeks ago (the narrator is the killer). is it still worth reading?"

For someone like me who has read, listened to, and watched the movie and tv versions of all of AC's work many times over, Rob, I still get pleasure from reading the books for 1) the observation of how AC plots her mysteries, and 2) the trip back through time to the best of the Golden Age of British mysteries, with their observations of English society and their focus on a neatly wrapped puzzle.

Well if u have read many christie books before I doubt u will have any thrill to read it.try something new , the one which is still an untouched mystery

But sometimes when you read them again Ved, you find something that you didn't really pay attention to before. I love re-reads.

I was not able to be on here at the time you all were reading this, but have read it before-twice in fact. I would say it is one of her best.

Jill wrote: "Funny we should mention the narrator being the murderer since I just finished a book of short stories by Peter Lovesey, one of which uses that device. It was fun.

[bookcover:The Sedgemoor Strangle..."

Sounds good.

No problem adding to discussions Karen. This group is totally fine with people going back to previous books of the month and adding comments when they get around to reading it.

In fact, I was wondering (I know it's a long way off) but when we go through the books again, should I just add the new reading month to the previous reading month and have people add to previous discussions or start it off fresh and new? What do you think?

This book is a book of the month for March 2018. Here is a link to that thread. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...