The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd embodies everything that I love about Agatha Christie mysteries! Especially the ending…

But let’s start at the beginning. The village of King’s Abbot is rocked by the apparent suicide of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow, and the murder of Roger Ackroyd, a widower who hoped to marry Mrs. Ferrars. The deaths occur just one day apart and pulled into the center of both cases is Dr. Sheppard, the good country doctor. He is invited to dinner at Ackroyd’s home the night after Mrs. Ferrar’s death to be told by Ackroyd that the women he loved had confessed to him that she had poisoned her late husband and that she was being blackmailed. She did not reveal the identity of her blackmailer and died of an overdose of veronal that evening.

Before Dr. Sheppard departs Ackroyd’s home, Fernly Glen, the butler hands Ackroyd a blue envelope from Mrs. Ferrars! A note from the grave and perhaps revealing the identity of her blackmailer. Ackroyd decides he wants to read the letter alone and Dr. Sheppard takes his leave, returning to the home he shares with his sister, and inquisitive spinster who doesn’t miss anything that goes on in the village and fancies herself a bit of a detective later on in the story. (Interesting side note: In Agatha’s autobiography, she credits Dr. Sheppard’s sister as being the inspiration for Miss Marple.)

Dr. Sheppard is called back to Fernly Glen just two hours later after Ackroyd is found stabbed in his study – and the blue letter is gone. The house is full of suspects with motives and opportunity. Miss Russell, the housekeeper, who had hopes of one day marrying Ackroyd herself. Major Blunt, who clearly was distracted during his visit to Fernly Glen, and who had given Ackroyd the small dagger from Tunis that eventually killed him. Geoffrey Raymond, the young secretary, who is a little too efficient, and parlormaid Ursula Bourne, who has a mysterious background, are also suspects. As are Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd and her daughter Flora, Ackroyd’s sister-in-law and niece who are financially dependent on him, and Ralph Paton, Ackroyd’s adult adopted son, who is secretly engaged to Flora. Paton was estranged from his father because of gambling debts and was staying the village at the time of his father’s murder.

Flora, dismayed that Paton soon becomes the prime suspect, implores Hercule Poirot, who has recently retired to King’s Abbott, to clear his name. Poirot agrees and Dr. Sheppard takes the place of Hastings as his partner in the investigation as well as the narrator of the story.

A discarded ring, a chair moved every so slightly and a phone call all lead Poirot to the thrilling conclusion. I literally gasped when the murderer’s true identity was revealed. Agatha at her finest.

I give The Murder of Roger Ackroyd five out of five stars.

The Secret of Chimneys

If you are fascinated by political intrigue, then you’ll enjoy The Secret of Chimneys. The story begins with a chance meeting between adventurers Anthony Cade and Jimmy McGrath in the Rhodesian bush. McGrath is on his way to search for gold in Africa, and asks his friend if he’d like to run two errands for him in London.

The first favor involves delivering the memoirs of Count Stylptitch of Herzoslovakia to his publisher for 1,000 pounds. McGrath had rescued the Count from a street assault in Paris, and upon his recent death, the Count had asked that McGrath safely see his manuscript delivered. The second request McGrath asks of Cade is to relieve a woman named Virginia Revel of a blackmail scheme. McGrath had procured the blackmail letters from a dying man who asked him to keep up the scheme, but McGrath only wanted to put the woman’s fears to rest. Cade, being the free spirit that his is, agrees to both tasks.

On his first night in London, Cade receives three unexpected visitors. The first, a baron from Herzoslovakia, pleads with Cade to sell him the Count’s memoirs for twice the payoff. The Baron is concerned the publication of the memoirs would harm the country’s plan to restore its monarchy by putting Prince Michael Obolovitch on the throne. Cade refuses.

His next visitor, a member of the Comrades of the Red Hand, demands the manuscript at gunpoint. The group does not want the monarchy restored. Cade is able to kick the revolver out of the man’s hand and he flees off into the night. Cade has to defend himself one last time after he discovers a waiter named Giuseppe rifling through his things in the middle of the night. Cade once again manages to scare away his knife-wielding invader, but not before Giuseppe makes off with the blackmail letters.

Cade manages to complete his first task – delivering the manuscript to the publishers – after a harrowing evening and embarks upon his second task – letting Virginia Revel know about the blackmail scheme. Upon meeting her, Cade is stunned when she asks him for a favor instead – disposing of the dead body in her study, which Cade is equally astonished to find is that of Giuseppe.

And we’re not even at Chimneys, a sprawling country estate, yet. Cade and Virginia Revel head there next after finding a note reading “Chimneys 11:45 Thursday” in Giuseppe’s pocket. Murder and political intrigue follow them into the country, and if you didn’t have enough to keep track of, a jewel thief who goes by the name King Victor, is thrown in for good measure.

This has been my least favorite Agatha Christie mystery so far. I had a really hard time following all of the different offshoots of the story, and I thought the premise of Herzoslovakia was a bit far-fetched. This novel seemed so different in tone and storyline structure, and I felt like she was trying to put too many cases into one novel. I will give Dame Agatha credit for throwing in an unexpected twist at the very end that left me with a bit of satisfaction.

I give The Secret of Chimneys one out of five stars. I don’t expect to be this disappointed very often in the rest of my journey.

The Man in the Brown Suit

The Man in the Brown Suit is my favorite Agatha Christie novel so far (granted I’m only a few books into her vast collection)! And what a pleasant surprise to find the chief sleuth is not Miss Marple (who has yet to be introduced) or Hercule Poirot, but Anne Beddingfeld – a beautiful, young woman whose father recently died leaving her nearly penniless, but with a bountiful sense of adventure.

Anne finds herself in the Hyde Park Corner tube station looking for excitement when it literally falls in front of her. A thin, bearded man, who reeks of mothballs, falls to his death on the tracks, and it’s a man in a brown suit, purporting to be a doctor, who examines the body and ends up swiping a note from the dead man’s pocket. The man in the brown suit drops it on his way out and Anne picks up the note, which reads “17.122 Kilmorden Castle,” and so her adventure begins.

She soon discovers that Kilmorden Castle is actually a cruise ship set to sail to Cape Town, Africa, on Jan. 17, 1922 (1/17/22). Anne spends the last of her money on booking passage. Once she overcomes seasickness, Anne is startled to see the man in the brown suit, Harry Rayburn, is a fellow passenger. He is suspected in the murder of a woman who at one time worked as an agent for the Colonel, carrying out all types of international crime, including the theft of £100,000 in DeBeers diamonds. The location of those diamonds and the identity of the Colonel become Anne’s mystery to solve as the ship docks in Cape Town and the prime suspects continue on a train journey through Africa.

The list of suspects includes socialite Suzanne Blair, who befriends Anne on the ship; Colonel Race, who is rumored to be a Secret Service agent; Sir Eustace Pedler, a wealthy and well-respected character whose home was the site of the murder of the female spy; Guy Padgett, Pedler’s secretary, who appears to be harboring a guilty secret; Rev. Edward Chichester, a missionary with a dubious story; and of course, Harry Rayburn, the man in the brown suit.

I loved Anne’s spunky and fearless character as told in the first person in The Man in the Brown Suit. Her adventures, multiple marriage proposals, and attempts at her life as she gets closer to unmasking the Colonel, made for a rollicking ride that is far removed from the parlors of an English country house. You’ll be guessing until the end as to who will be revealed as the Colonel in this thrilling case.

I give The Man in the Brown Suit five out of five stars! And I do hope Anne Beddingfeld returns to a future Agatha Christie mystery, although where the novel leaves her at the end might rule that out.