The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Plot

Dr James Sheppard, the story's narrator, lives with his unmarried sister, Caroline, in the English country village of King's Abbot. Telling the story in his own words, Dr Sheppard recounts being called to certify the death of a wealthy widow, Mrs Ferrars, who has committed suicide a year after her abusive husband's demise. Caroline speculates that Mrs Ferrars had poisoned her husband and has committed suicide out of remorse.

Roger Ackroyd, wealthy widower and owner of Fernly Park, tells Dr Sheppard that he needs to talk to him urgently and invites him to dinner that evening. In addition to Dr Sheppard, the dinner guests include Major Blunt, Ackroyd's sister-in-law Mrs Cecil Ackroyd, her daughter Flora, and Ackroyd's personal secretary, Geoffrey Raymond. Flora tells the doctor that she is engaged to Ralph Paton, Ackroyd's stepson, though the engagement is being kept confidential.

In his study after dinner, Ackroyd tells Dr Sheppard that he had been engaged to Mrs Ferrars for several months, and that she had admitted the day before that she had indeed poisoned her husband. She was being blackmailed, and promised to reveal the blackmailer's name within 24 hours. At this point Ackroyd's butler, Parker, enters with a letter that Mrs Ferrars had posted just before she killed herself. Ackroyd apologetically asks Dr Sheppard to leave so that he can read it alone.

Shortly after arriving back home, the doctor receives a phone call from Parker. Dr Sheppard tells Caroline that Ackroyd has been found dead and then returns to Fernly Park. Parker professes to know nothing about the phone call. Unable to get a response at the study door, Sheppard and Parker break it down and find Ackroyd dead in his chair, killed with his own dagger. The letter is missing and footprints are found leading in and out of the study through an open window.

Ralph disappears and becomes the primary suspect when the footprints are found to match shoes that he owns. Flora, convinced that Ralph is innocent, asks the recently retired detective Hercule Poirot to investigate. He agrees and visits the scene of the crime, asking Dr Sheppard to accompany him.

Parker notes to Poirot that a chair in Ackroyd's study has been moved. Poirot questions the guests and staff, including Ursula Bourne, the parlourmaid, who has no alibi. The window of opportunity for the murderer after Dr Sheppard's departure appears to have been quite short since Raymond and Blunt later heard Ackroyd talking in his study, and Flora says she saw him just before going up to bed.

Principal characters

Hercule Poirot – retired private detective, living in the village

Dr James Sheppard – the local doctor, Poirot's assistant in his investigations, and the novel's narrator

Caroline Sheppard – Dr Sheppard's unmarried sister

Roger Ackroyd – the victim of the case. A wealthy businessman and widower

Mrs Ferrars – widow who dies by suicide at the start of the novel

Mrs Cecil Ackroyd – widow of Roger's brother Cecil

Flora Ackroyd – Ackroyd's niece, Cecil's daughter

Captain Ralph Paton – Ackroyd's stepson from his late wife's previous marriage

Major Hector Blunt – Ackroyd's friend, a guest of the household

Geoffrey Raymond – Ackroyd's personal secretary

John Parker – Ackroyd's butler

Elizabeth Russell – Ackroyd's housekeeper

Charles Kent – Russell's illegitimate son

Ursula Bourne – Ackroyd's parlourmaid

Inspector Davis – local police inspector for King's Abbot

Inspector Raglan – police Inspector

Colonel Melrose – chief constable for the county

Narrative voice and structure

The novel is narrated by Dr James Sheppard, who becomes Poirot's assistant, in place of Captain Hastings who has married and settled in the Argentine. It includes an unexpected plot twist towards the end, when Dr Sheppard reveals he has throughout been an unreliable narrator, using literary techniques to conceal his guilt without writing anything untrue (e.g., "I did what little had to be done" at the point where he slipped the dictaphone into his bag and moved the chair).

Literary significance and reception

The review in The Times Literary Supplement began, "This is a well-written detective story of which the only criticism might perhaps be that there are too many curious incidents not really connected with the crime which have to be elucidated before the true criminal can be discovered". The review concluded, "It is all very puzzling, but the great Hercule Poirot, a retired Belgian detective, solves the mystery. It may safely be asserted that very few readers will do so."

A long review in The New York Times Book Review read in part:

There are doubtless many detective stories more exciting and blood-curdling than The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but this reviewer has recently read very few which provide greater analytical stimulation. This story, though it is inferior to them at their best, is in the tradition of Poe's analytical tales and the Sherlock Holmes stories. The author does not devote her talents to the creation of thrills and shocks, but to the orderly solution of a single murder, conventional at that, instead....

Miss Christie is not only an expert technician and a remarkably good story-teller, but she knows, as well, just the right number of hints to offer as to the real murderer. In the present case his identity is made all the more baffling through the author's technical cleverness in selecting the part he is to play in the story; and yet her non-committal characterization of him makes it a perfectly fair procedure. The experienced reader will probably spot him, but it is safe to say that he will often have his doubts as the story unfolds itself.

The Observer had high praise for the novel, especially the character Caroline:

No one is more adroit than Miss Christie in the manipulation of false clues and irrelevances and red herrings; and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd makes breathless reading from first to the unexpected last. It is unfortunate that in two important points – the nature of the solution and the use of the telephone – Miss Christie has been anticipated by another recent novel: the truth is that this particular field is getting so well ploughed that it is hard to find a virgin patch anywhere. But Miss Christie's story is distinguished from most of its class by its coherence, its reasonableness, and the fact that the characters live and move and have their being: the gossip-loving Caroline would be an acquisition to any novel.

Development

Christie revealed in her 1977 autobiography that the basic idea of the novel was given to her by her brother-in-law, James Watts of Abney Hall, who suggested a novel in which the criminal would be a Dr Watson character, which Christie considered to be a "remarkably original thought".

In March 1924 Christie also received an unsolicited letter from Lord Louis Mountbatten. He had been impressed with her previous works and wrote, courtesy of The Sketch magazine (publishers of many of her short stories at that time) with an idea and notes for a story whose basic premise mirrored the Watts suggestion. Christie acknowledged the letter and after some thought, began to write the book but to a plot line of her invention. She also acknowledged taking inspiration from the infamous case of the unsolved death of Charles Bravo, who she thought had been murdered by Dr James Manby Gully.

In December 1969 Mountbatten wrote to Christie again after having seen a performance of The Mousetrap. He mentioned his letter of the 1920s, and Christie replied, acknowledging the part he played in the conception of the book.

Publication history

The story first appeared as a fifty-four part serialisation in the London Evening News from Thursday, 16 July, to Wednesday, 16 September 1925 under the title Who Killed Ackroyd? In the United States, the story was serialised in four parts in Flynn's Detective Weekly from 19 June (Volume 16, Number 2) to 10 July 1926 (Volume 16, Number 5). The text was heavily abridged and each instalment carried an uncredited illustration.

The Collins first edition of June 1926 (retailing for seven shillings and sixpence) was Christie's first work placed with that publisher. "The first book that Agatha wrote for Collins was the one that changed her reputation forever; no doubt she knew, as through 1925 she turned the idea over in her mind, that here she had a winner." The first United States publisher was The Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 19 June 1926 (retailing at $2.00).

By 1928, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was available in braille through the UK's Royal National Institute for the Blind and was among the first works to be chosen for transfer to Gramophone record for their Books for the Blind library in the autumn of 1935. By 1936 it was listed as one of only eight books available in this form.

Book dedication

Christie's dedication in the book reads "To Punkie, who likes an orthodox detective story, murder, inquest, and suspicion falling on every one in turn!"

"Punkie" was the family nickname of Christie's sister and eldest sibling, Margaret ("Madge") Frary Watts (1879–1950). Despite their eleven-year age gap, the sisters remained close throughout their lives. Christie's mother first suggested to her that she should alleviate the boredom of an illness by writing a story. But soon after, when the sisters had been discussing the recently published classic detective story by Gaston Leroux, The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908), Christie said she would like to try writing such a story. Margaret challenged her, saying that she would not be able to do it. In 1916, eight years later, Christie remembered this conversation and was inspired to write her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Margaret Watts wrote a play, The Claimant, based on the Tichborne Case, which enjoyed a short run in the West End at the Queen's Theatre from 11 September to 18 October 1924, two years before the book publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Dustjacket blurb

The dustjacket blurb read as follows:

M. Poirot, the hero of The Mysterious Affair at Stiles [sic] and other brilliant pieces of detective deduction, comes out of his temporary retirement like a giant refreshed, to undertake the investigation of a peculiarly brutal and mysterious murder. Geniuses like Sherlock Holmes often find a use for faithful mediocrities like Dr Watson, and by a coincidence it is the local doctor who follows Poirot round, and himself tells the story. Furthermore, as seldom happens in these cases, he is instrumental in giving Poirot one of the most valuable clues to the mystery.

In popular culture

Gilbert Adair's 2006 locked-room mystery The Act of Roger Murgatroyd was written as "a celebration-cum-critique-cum-parody" of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Adaptations

Stage play

The book formed the basis of the earliest adaptation of any work of Christie's when the play, Alibi, adapted by Michael Morton, opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London on 15 May 1928. It ran for 250 performances with Charles Laughton as Poirot. Laughton also starred in the Broadway run of the play, retitled The Fatal Alibi, which opened at the Booth Theatre on 8 February 1932. The American production was not as successful and closed after just 24 performances.

Alibi inspired Christie to write her first stage play, Black Coffee. Christie, with her dog Peter, attended the rehearsals of Alibi and found its "novelty" enjoyable. However, "she was sufficiently irritated by the changes to the original to want to write a play of her own."

In 2023, the novel was adapted for the stage by actor and Edgar award nominated playwright Mark Shanahan (not to be confused with the Irish conductor) in partnership with Agatha Christie, Ltd. The play received its first public reading at the Westport Country Playhouse in June 2023 with Santino Fontana as Dr. Sheppard and Arnie Burton as Poirot. Shortly thereafter, the world premiere production directed by Mark Shanahan opened at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas and featured the Alley's resident company of actors with David Sinaiko as Poirot. The Houston Chronicle reviewed the play, calling it "a whodunnit done right. This world premiere adaptation elegantly transfers Christie's rich mystery from the page to the stage..."

The play opened on 21 July and ran through 27 August in a limited run as part of the Alley Theatre's Summer Chills series and was subsequently published by Concord Theatricals before receiving numerous productions. The adaptation remains mostly faithful to the book, with Shanahan stating that crafting the adaptation was a "labour of love."

Film

The play was turned into the first sound film based on a Christie work. Running 75 minutes, it was released on 28 April 1931, by Twickenham Film Studios and produced by Julius S. Hagan. Austin Trevor played Poirot, a role he reprised later that year in the film adaptation of Christie's 1930 play, Black Coffee. Alibi is considered to be a lost film.

Radio

Orson Welles adapted the novel as a one-hour radio play for the 12 November 1939 episode of The Campbell Playhouse. Welles played both Dr Sheppard and Hercule Poirot. The play was adapted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, produced by Welles and John Houseman, and directed by Welles.

Cast:

Orson Welles as Hercule Poirot and Dr Sheppard

Edna May Oliver as Caroline Sheppard

Alan Napier as Roger Ackroyd

Brenda Forbes as Mrs Ackroyd

Mary Taylor as Flora

George Coulouris as Inspector Hamstead

Ray Collins as Mr Raymond

Everett Sloane as Parker

The novel was also adapted as a 1½-hour radio play for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on 24 December 1987. John Moffatt made the first of his many performances as Poirot. The adaptation was broadcast at 7.45pm and was recorded on 2 November of the same year; it was adapted by Michael Bakewell and produced by Enyd Williams.

Cast:

John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot

John Woodvine as Doctor Sheppard

Laurence Payne as Roger Ackroyd

Diana Olsson as Caroline Sheppard

Eva Stuart as Miss Russell

Peter Gilmore as Raymond

Zelah Clarke as Flora

Television

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was adapted as a 103-minute drama transmitted in the UK on ITV Sunday 2 January 2000, as an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot. Location filming took place at Castle Combe in Wiltshire.

Adaptor: Clive Exton

Director: Andrew Grieve

Cast:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was adapted as a 190-minute drama transmitted in Japan on Fuji Television on 14 April 2018, as a special drama, under the title "The Murder of Kuroido" (Japanese: 黒井戸殺し, Kuroido Goroshi).

Adaptor: Koki Mitani

Director: Hidenori Joho

Cast:

Graphic novel

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation on 20 August 2007, adapted and illustrated by Bruno Lachard (ISBN 0-00-725061-4). This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2004 under the title, Le Meurtre de Roger Ackroyd.

Audio

The Wireless Theatre Company made an audio recording of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in 2015, with Ben Whitehead as Poirot.