Bruce Beckham's Blog - Posts Tagged "murder-of-roger-ackroyd"
Roger and Out
I'm currently reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, widely regarded as Agatha Christie's masterpiece.
I love her books - though more out of curiosity and sentimental nostalgia for the interwar era than for their plots.
Down the years I've worked my way through most of the collection - but rarely have I guessed the identity of the guilty party prior to the denouement.
Indeed, this is not something I strive for - I'm content to leave the sleuthing to Monsieur Poirot et al.
However, for some reason in this case, by the end of Chapter 4 (of 27), I feel certain about 'whodunit'.
Perhaps I've struck lucky with a stray observation - but based on my hypothesis the 'Queen of Crime' appears over-generous with her clues.
Of course, she's also the Queen of Red Herrings, so maybe I've taken the bait!
I love her books - though more out of curiosity and sentimental nostalgia for the interwar era than for their plots.
Down the years I've worked my way through most of the collection - but rarely have I guessed the identity of the guilty party prior to the denouement.
Indeed, this is not something I strive for - I'm content to leave the sleuthing to Monsieur Poirot et al.
However, for some reason in this case, by the end of Chapter 4 (of 27), I feel certain about 'whodunit'.
Perhaps I've struck lucky with a stray observation - but based on my hypothesis the 'Queen of Crime' appears over-generous with her clues.
Of course, she's also the Queen of Red Herrings, so maybe I've taken the bait!
Window on the world
So I finished The Murder of Roger Ackroyd today - and, as I suspected, at an early stage I had correctly guessed the identity of the killer.
I've been trying to work out if this made reading the novel more or less enjoyable - but I think my conclusion is there was no difference; I really liked it, and it was still necessary to wait until the denouement to be certain.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, what I most love about Agatha Christie's writing is its window on the inter-war world of upper middle class England - perhaps unintentional on her behalf, but fascinating nonetheless.
Bring on the next one!
I've been trying to work out if this made reading the novel more or less enjoyable - but I think my conclusion is there was no difference; I really liked it, and it was still necessary to wait until the denouement to be certain.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, what I most love about Agatha Christie's writing is its window on the inter-war world of upper middle class England - perhaps unintentional on her behalf, but fascinating nonetheless.
Bring on the next one!
