The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie · first published 1926
48% recommend52% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Features a famously surprising twist ending that catches most readers off guard. It ranks among the best murder mysteries and serves as a strong entry point to Christie's detective fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Belgian Inspector Hercule Poirot has retired to the countryside in the small English village of King's Abbot. Dr. Sheppard, observing his new neighbor, is sure that he must be a former hairdresser. But the brutal murder of a local squire reveals the truth: the peculiar little man is actually a detective par excellence. The Murder of the wealthy industrialist Roger Ackroyd begins the night before with the suicide of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow. Her death is believed to be an accident, until Roger Ackroyd is stabbed to death in his locked study. There are rumors she poisoned her first husband,
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For anyone who has never read Agatha Christie, I highly recommend the following: - And Then There Were None - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Murder on the Orient Express - The A.B.C. Murders The books are usually "slow burns", meaning they slowly build up to the big reveal at the end of the book. Agatha Christie is the master of making…
on “Killing time with Agatha Christie” ↗…I've read for SE, though it might be a little heavy for a "beach read." [2] P. G. Wodehouse is always a good bet for lighter reading. [3] The Martian books are also light swashbuckling sci-fi. [4] The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered to be one of the best murder mysteries ever written. [5] [1] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/lord-dunsany/the-book-of-w... [2] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/david-lindsay/a-voyage-to-...…
on “Standard Ebooks” ↗Some really good books will get false negatives by this rule, however. For example: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie. By the bottom of page 50 I was not enjoying it at all, seemed like a trite mystery novel. I was ready to put it down but the friend who recommended it urged me to slog through. And…
on “Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 for dropping a bad book” ↗A nice list, though I think my favourite detective story would fail on at least one point; indeed, ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ by Agatha Christie succeeds largely because it goes against one of the rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murder_of_Roger_Ackroyd
on “Rules for Writing Detective Stories by S.S. Van Dine (1928)” ↗The murder of Roger Ackroyd For what it is, it was great. Did not read a lot of books this year due to children and covid!
on “Ask HN: What is the best book you read in 2020?” ↗…Repila - "The Boy Who Stole Attila’s Horse": short intense novel about 2 boys who are trapped in a well Margaret Atwood - "The handmaid's tale" Khaled Hosseini - "The kite runner" Agatha Christie - "The murder of Roger Ackroyd" (very surprising plot) Andy Weir - "The Martian" Charles Dickens - "David Copperfield" Clare Mackintosh - "I let you go" Carlos Ruiz Zafón - "The Shadow of the Wind" M.R. Carey - "The girl with…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗For whatever reason I've suddenly gotten deep into murder mystery books. In the last 3 weeks I've read a bunch of Agatha Christie classics: - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - And then there were none - Evil under the sun All brilliant in their own right but the first is a masterpiece. Don't google any of these because spoilers come up, but I've had a lot more fun and been…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024” ↗The essential Agatha (IMHO): The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Murder on the Orient Express Curtain Can't tell you why without spoiling it though. You have to read them.
on “Agatha Christie’s life rivaled the mysteries she created” ↗I hope you at least read her books with the biggest payoffs: And Then There Were None Murder of Roger Ackroyd Murder on the Orient Express The ABC Murders
on “The Case of Agatha Christie” ↗> The Murder of Roger Ackroyd A great book, I definitely did not see the ending coming until 2 or 3 paragraphs before the twist. > The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the supreme, the ultimate detective novel. It rests upon the most…
on “Killing time with Agatha Christie” ↗Quite the story! I never heard about this before, and I’m a huge fan (admittedly that’s fan of the books though, rather than the author herself). The story/novel mentioned in the article (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) is famous in literary circles for $reasons - if you haven’t read it and you enjoy reading that sort of book, you’re missing out! (It does look like she staged a murder scene from her books intending…
on “The strange disappearance of Mrs Agatha Christie (2022)” ↗Here's all of the titles: Arnold Schoenberg W. B. Yeats’ Estrangement Vladimir Nabokov’s Mary Sinclair Lewis A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh Faust directed by F. W. Murnau Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd D. H. Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent Igor Stravinsky Don Juan directed by Alan Crosland Louis Armstrong Battling Butler directed by Buster Keaton Diane Arbus Oscar Micheaux William Faulkner’s Soldiers’…
on “What will enter the public domain in 2022” ↗I was thinking Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier. Having an unreliable narrator running the adventure story would play right into the inability of the LLM to effectively hold state.
on “Show HN: I built an AI that turns any book into a text adventure game” ↗Something similar is in Agatha Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
on “Police are requesting data from smart speakers” ↗…was thrown in. That was unexpected. Beyond that, it was a paint by numbers story. With a SJW writer/director and the basic setup of the family, you immediately know what's going to happen and how. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie, another one of those where every writer figures out who killed the guy once the body was found because it's stupid easy when you know the mechanics. Analysts, "What a surprising twist!" Also,…
on “No More Movies” ↗