Mystery Annotation

 

Author: Agatha Christie

Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Genre: Mysteries

Publication Date: 1926

Number of Pages: 276

Geographical Setting: King’s Abbot, England

Time Period: 1920s

Series (If applicable): Hercule Poirot

Plot Summary: Despite being in retirement in the quite village of King’s Abbot, Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate the murder of one of his friends, the wealthy Roger Ackroyd. With a cast of characters as potential suspects and a list of motives including debts, blackmail, and inheritance, the many alibis and differing details regarding the events the events of the evening, Poirot will have to use all his detective skills to determine who killed Roger Ackroyd.

Subject Headings: Private investigators

                                    Poirot, Hercule (Fictitious character)

                                    Murder - investigation

                                    Extortion

Appeal: storyline: intricately plotted

    tone: suspenseful

    writing style: compelling

    themes: unreliable narrator

3 terms that best describe this book: suspenseful, intricately plotted, twist ending

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson--this book explores Christie’s life from childhood to successful author, including her mysterious disappearance in 1926. Thompson was able to interview family members and read letters and other personal writings from Christie’s home.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara--a book about the serial killer in California during the 1970s and 80s, who committed 50 sexual assaults and 10 murders, but who remained at-large as of the time of McNamara’s work. The book was completed two years after her untimely death, and the perpetrator was arrested in 2018, the same year as the book’s release.

Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes--this compelling memoir by Paul Holes, a renowned cold case investigator, discusses some of the most challenging cold cases he has worked on, including his investigation and final arrest of the long-cold Golden State Killer suspect, Joseph DeAngelo.

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton--both are intricately plotted, compelling mysteries. This has an Agatha Christie “who-done-it” mystery style.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz--both intricately plotted mysteries, this book very much written in the style of Agatha Christie mysteries

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson--both are intricately plotted, suspenseful mysteries written in compelling style, and both have an unreliable narrator theme.