A Woman of Mystery

Written in 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the fourth Hercule Poirot novel and Christie’s seventh book overall. It takes place after “mon cher Hastings” has left with his Cinderella for Argentina (see Murder on the Links). Poirot has retired to the country to grow vegetable marrows (known in the U.S. as summer squash; zucchini is one of this category), and of course, a murder occurs in his vicinity. A woman kills herself after being blackmailed for murdering her husband, but she sends a letter to her beau explaining her actions, and he is murdered before the identity of the blackmailer can be revealed. Poirot accepts the assistance of his neighbor, local physician Dr. Sheppard, in researching the case, and enjoys his company in the absence of Arthur Hastings.

I would definitely place this book in Christie’s top ten; in fact, I would place it in the top ten of all mystery books I have read. It’s books like this one that have cemented Agatha’s place among the royalty of mystery writers; and coming so early in her fifty-plus year career, it is evidence for why she is considered by many to be the Queen. (One of the premier mystery awards is called “The Agatha”.)  She deserves not only the title of “writer”, but truly that of “creative writer”. So many of her books push the boundaries of the mystery novel – in plot twist, in character type, in structure and style – that it can be quite difficult for a modern writer to find a technique that is not derivative of a Christie invention. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd originates one of those.  It’s so powerful that when you come to the end of the book, you’ll turn back to beginning and start over; the knowledge so alters your perspective that it is a completely different book the second time around.

Even more impressive, she manages to do these things with an economy of language that is quite unheard of in the modern mystery genre. Modern mysteries tend to be quite dense and complex, taking several hundreds of pages to tell tales loaded with so much action and intrigue that it is frequently a wonder that the protagonist manages to solve the puzzle. The modern books are also heavy with dialogue and description supporting character development. Both an abundance of action and an abundance of character can be quite enthralling to the reader when well-done, yet it is not a necessary feature of a good mystery. I have always found Christie to be quite evocative of both characters and environments despite the fact that most of her books surround the 200-page threshold; and her plots are always involved and realistic in their exploration of the most base of human actions. I am not sure what drives the increasing complexity of modern literature compared to that of past eras; I hope that readers consuming a steady diet of the modern will still be able to appreciate the beautiful simplicity of so many of the classics, in this genre and others.