Book Review: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

When a wealthy widow and member of the King’s Abbot community takes her own life by overdose and the next day her fiancé, Roger Ackroyd, is stabbed to death, the local villagers are left in shock as rumours begin to circulate regarding the mysterious deaths. Did Roger Ackroyd know too much? Was money the motive? Was it something more sinister?

Detective Hercule Poirot emerges from his recent retirement to solve the case of his friend, Roger. Finding the answers won’t be without its challenges as just a few clues are left behind, most alibis are solid and twists lie behind every corner.

Death, blackmail and an unexpected ending come together in this enthralling novel that belongs on the bookshelf of every murder mystery enthusiast.

I love Agatha Christie mysteries; they are classics for a reason. I bought this slim copy (supposedly published by Bibliotheca Classica, a streamlined version without even page breaks for new chapters) from Something Novel Booksellers during one of their sales. I don't remember if there's a book summary on the back of my book (the summary above I grabbed from Amazon) but I probably didn't read it; I just knew it was a Hercule Poirot book due to the cover, and that's all I needed to know. I like Poirot; he's a cracking detective and a nice man with a rather stereotypical French accent (he is Belgian). 

We go through a good chunk of the book without even meeting Poirot, instead focusing on the relevant cast of characters and other gossipy members of the village. There's the eponymous murder victim, stabbed in a room he had locked from the inside; his dependent sister-in-law (money-hungry and annoying) and niece (beautiful, pushed to marry her step-cousin), the big game hunter friend who had gifted Roger the murder weapon, the too-cheerful secretary, the suspicious and secret-keeping servant staff, and the no-show stepson (handsome, went through money like water, and vanished right after his stepfather was murdered). There's also our narrator the village doctor, who knew and treated everyone; his queen of gossip spinster sister, her cronies, and their mysterious foreign neighbor... 

This was an excellent and twisty mystery, and I did not see the ending coming! Spoilers, highlight to read: the narrator was the murderer??? HOLY SHIT AC'S MIND 🤯🤯🤯 And for him to hide the stepson to "protect" him from being arrested when really it was to throw suspicion on him!!! I don't super get why the doctor felt he had to kill Roger though? All he had to do was use chloroform or something to knock him out and steal the letter. Anyway, highly recommended to anyone who likes murder mysteries!

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0
Read in: March 14
From: Something Novel Booksellers

Genres/classification: mystery, murder mystery, whodunnit, crime, English literature

Trigger warnings: murder, blood, suicide, drug overdose suicide, drug addiction, blackmail, classism

You can read my reviews of the other Agatha Christie books I've read by clicking on my Agatha Christie tag below.

November Reads

 I'm so behind on book reviews lol

 

The Hollow by Agatha Christie - 3 ½ stars

This is another Hercule Poirot mystery that I picked up from the thrift store, and like all the other AG mysteries I've read, it's well-written and interesting. You can read the summary here.  Just about everyone in the story, who are all related or friends, is a suspect, and I didn't guess who the killer was. Besides our beloved M. Poirot, the most fleshed-out characters were the dead man's wife and mistress. The mistress (I've forgotten all their names, of course) is an artist, and it was really interesting to read about how the muse would overtake her and she'd walk around everywhere hunting for the right inspiration until she found it and could create the art she needed to. The wife, a dim woman who worships her husband, is a rather pitiable figure. There's a scene where she and the children are sitting at the table waiting for her husband to arrive, and the food is getting cold, but she's stuck in decision paralysis because if she sends the food back to be warmed right before her husband arrives, he'll be mad and scold her for making him wait, but if she doesn't send the food back he'll be mad and scold her for it being cold. That is such a realistic portrayal of decision paralysis and anxiety. I found the older lady interesting, with her speed-of-light thought process that is definitely ADHD. Poirot obviously solves the murder but it's sad. Still, I enjoyed reading this. The characterization is strong in this one, even for characters who don't come into the story much. 3 ½ stars, 1 chili pepper as there's mentions of sex but no scenes. Trigger warnings: murder, firearms, infidelity, misogyny and sexism, controlling and verbally abusive relationship, antisemitic depiction/description of Jewish character, classism

A Duke She Can't Refuse by Gemma Blackwood - 3 ½ stars

This was a free ebook I downloaded from Nook. Book summary here  It's got several romance novel tropes: the nobility love interest (duke, obvs. You'd think no other types of men exist in Regency romance novels except nobility ones), forced/fake engagement, "don't fall in love with me" but of course they do, wallflower/bluestocking doesn't want to marry, etc. This book also has a mystery that was quite interesting, with a couple of thrilling rescues. It's actually a no-spice romance, which I didn't realize until end the because I enjoyed the book so much that I didn't notice. The sexual attraction, "no we mustn't" and kissing is still there though. This, unsurprisingly, is the first of a series; I'd be willing to read the rest, preferably free or from the library. 3 ½ stars, 1 chili pepper for the kissing and lusting. Trigger warnings: young woman is kidnapped and held at gunpoint, a character falls out of a window and dies (off-page/past), house fire/arson, grief, I think someone cuts their hand and bleeds?

 

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite - 3 ½ stars

This is a sapphic Regency romance novel, so of course I put it on my to-read list. The ebook went on sale for $1.99 and I snapped it up. Book summary here  I like that the protagonists are both women in their 40s and have their own careers that they enjoy and are fulfilled by. Type-A Agatha runs a printing business and gentle Penelope is a beekeeper. They meet because a swarm of bees creates a colony inside Agatha's warehouse, and are attracted to each other. Agatha is a widow (although not the waspish one in the book) and Penelope is in a lavender marriage to her brother's partner. This keeps them apart initially as Agatha thinks it's a real marriage (well, it is legally but you know what I mean) and tries to keep her distance, and Penelope sees this as lack of interest. Penelope reads butch/masc as she wears trousers 90% of the time because of the bees and has short hair. There are several other queer people in this book, which I really liked. I also learned a lot about Regency beekeeping practices. There's a lot of conflict with the Lady of the village and her brother the vicar, who together rule the village with an iron fist and attempt to impose their will (touted as "morality" rules) on the townspeople and especially Penelope and her queer friends and family members. They fight back, of course; there's surprisingly a lot of political activism in this book. The Queen Caroline Affair comes up a lot; I had never heard about it but it needs to be made into a period drama. I know I only gave it 3 ½ stars, but I really enjoyed this book and will definitely check out Olivia Waite's other books. 4 chili peppers (this is definitely a spicy book). Trigger warnings: homophobia, religious homophobia, corrupt religious leader, bee killings mentioned, bee cruelty/endangerment, grief, infidelity mentions

Aesthetics moodboard for TC&KoWW

Book Review: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

“The murderer is with us—on the train now . . .”

Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer.

Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again.

This was another sneaky "read this library sale book at the reference desk so I don't have to buy it" read. I love Agatha Christie mysteries and find them very intriguing and twisty to read. I usually have a few suspects in mind when I read mysteries, but this one had me stumped. I couldn't really picture any of the passengers on the Orient Express as the murderer, and the ending was shocking yet satisfying. Is it weird that this made me want to ride one of those luxe retro trains? Retro fancy train travel sounds so luxurious and fun compared to "making money above passenger comfort" air travel. Charitable contests website Omaze used to have giveaways for tickets to the Orient Express train every so often.

SPOILERS paragraph since I want to talk about the ending/twist (highlight to read): I did NOT see that ending coming! ALL of them are the murderer?? The celebrity toddler's murder that the victim was responsible for was very obviously based on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder, with the names slightly changed. I get why Christie would use that story, as it's so shocking and heartrending, but hadn't it just happened a short while before she wrote the book? Kind of insensitive to the family, no? So sad, and I wholeheartedly support the killers' actions. Each person was part of or connected to the toddler's family in some way, and they all planned the guy's murder together. It was so smart they way they did it too, and if it weren't for Hercule Poirot being on the train by accident, no one would have figured it out. I think Poirot's decision to say the "unknown" killer escaped was the correct one. That baby-killer deserved to be murdered.

Overall, I really recommend this book to anyone who likes murder mysteries. It's a classic for a reason. I haven't seen the movie so I'll have to check it out.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: May 4
From: the library
Status: returned to the library

Representation: Hardly any, which is standard for Christie's books. Everyone is white, and there are working-class servants and train staff but they're clearly viewed in an upper-class sort of way. Everyone is European or American and viewed in very stereotypical ways (especially the Italian).

Cover notes: To be honest, I don't remember what 'my' copy's cover looked like. This one is close enough, as I do remember it having her big signature at the top.

Trigger warnings: murder, death, dead bodies, blood, past off-page kidnapping and murder of a toddler based on a true story, premeditated murder, prejudice and stereotyping, especially toward Italian character; classism

Rest of November books

I found another Agatha Christie novel I'd missed the first time around at the thrift store (or maybe it had just been donated) and bought it, also for fifty cents. Cat Among Pigeons is another Hercule Poirot novel. The synopsis and blurbs on the book cover don't mention this at all, so it was a delightful surprise when he showed up like 3/4 of the way through the book. The book starts off with an Arab prince and his English pilot friend trying to hide some jewels during a revolution in the Middle East, than changes to an exclusive girls' academy in England where murders keep happening. At first the two stories seem very different, then you see how they connect. I figured out where the jewels were hidden like 1/3 of the way through the book, if that. It was pretty obvious. The first teacher who got murdered was totally a lesbian, and she was written to be really nosy and annoying with poor social skills (also she was the gym teacher lmao). There was also a subplot with the prince's cousin, who also went to the academy. I enjoyed this one, although the ending made me a bit sad. 3.5 stars, giving away. Trigger warnings: murder, guns, racism, alcoholic minor character, adult male character flirts with teenage girls (for spy reasons, but still)

I picked up The Fifth Avenue Story Society by Rachel Hauck at Savers because it sounded interesting (synopsis here). You know I'm all about stories set in or about libraries, and the story society sounded intriguing. It was to my chagrin that I quickly realized the Fifth Avenue library in New York City barely figured into the story at all, and that this book turned out to be a Christian novel. 

Five people are sent an invitation to the Fifth Avenue Story Society but don't know why. They decide to meet every week to find out who sent the invitations and why and become friends. Since this is a Christian novel, things end in romance and God-finding. While I found the Christian stuff to be heavy-handed, I found the emotions and problems faced by the members interesting and handled well. The characters endure true grief and pain, and while they didn't feel real to me, I was interested in their stories and wanted to know what happened to them. My favorite (aka least sad) storyline was Coral's; her cosmetics company was going under, and it was resolved in a very satisfying way. True to form, I also liked Jett's author storyline: his favorite author might be a fraud, and he finds an unpublished manuscript in the Fifth Avenue library that contains the truth. The characters' secrets, ranked from most obvious to least obvious: why Coral left her fiancé, why Jett felt guilty about his brother's death, why Chuck lost custody of his kids, Lexa's relationship and connection issues, and Sam's short marriage to his wife. Of all of them, I never suspected anything about Sam's story. I did think he was so insistent on writing his memoir because he had Alzheimer's. There is a stereotypical mysterious librarian who is probably the one who invited them all to the Society; the secret of how and why is not revealed, and it's hinted that the librarian is an angel. Very annoying. Anyway, I enjoyed this well enough, even though all the non-elderly characters are gorgeous and attractive (do not even get me started on the "Nebraska boy"). 3 stars, giving away. Trigger warnings: deaths, violence mentions, gun mention, child endangerment mention, prison, parental abandonment, grief, anger, drug addiction/abuse and alcoholism mentions

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen was sourced from the same thrift store as CAtP. It's a short, slim little volume of collected essays on the author's life as a reader, her thoughts on reading, and her favorite books (including lists of book recommendations from her and her friends). I read and liked Quindlen's columns in the newspaper when I was younger and remember her to be a relatable, open, and intelligent writer. If you're a book person, you're probably familiar with this famous quote from this book: "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home." Don't you just love that? I very much enjoyed this book, although the books she mentions and lists as recommendations are very white and straight. I highly recommend reading this book if you're a book lover. 4.5 stars because I wish it were longer! I'm keeping this one. Trigger warnings: mentions of sex, virginity, birth control, probably trigger-y stuff from books' plots mentioned

It's cozy mysteries season, m***********s

 (Not actually cursing at you; title is a reference to this iconic McSweeney's post)

I stayed the weekend at my parents' a few weeks ago (or maybe last month?) and I went to the thrift store in my hometown. You guys, the books were all 50 cents each and the DVDs were all $1 each!!! This puts my local Savers to shame. $2-5 a book or DVD? Ok, filthy capitalist.

Anyway, I bought a stack of old Agatha Christie paperbacks, which I wouldn't have done at Savers due to their prices. 50 cents a book!!! I read them all over the first half of this month. I highly recommend Agatha Christie novels if you are in a reading slump because they are exciting (murder! mystery!) yet comforting (like a lot of people, I grew up reading a lot of books by and about white people in the 1900s, plus you know the detective will solve the mystery), plus they're pretty short! These are the books I bought and read: 

• N or M
  
• Thirteen at Dinner
  
• Murder in Mesopotamia
  
• Sad Cypress
  
• The Clocks

They are all Hercule Poirot mysteries, with the exception of N or M, which is a Tommy & Tuppence mystery (never heard of this series). Tommy and Tuppence are a married middle-aged (read: 40s) couple that were spies in WWI (previous books?) and are bummed no one wants them to help during WWII because they're too old, until Tommy gets a spy assignment and Tuppence, refusing to be left out, joins (she's such a BAMF). They have to find a Nazi spy who may have infiltrated a sleepy English seaside town, and their only clue is N or M. They pretend to be strangers at the same weird inn to find the spy, and the novel is suspenseful throughout. I enjoyed this one, and I'm open to reading other T&T novels. 

The Hercule Poirot mysteries are mostly narrated by someone else who is helping him; usually his Watsonian friend whose name I don't remember (Thirteen at Dinner), or a nurse roped into helping him solve a murder (Murder in Mesopotamia), or another detective/spy friend who splits the POV/narration with his police sergeant friend (The Clocks). Sad Cypress was unique in that it just had omniscient third person narration. I was most intrigued by MiM due to its setting, as I've been to places of archeological interest in the Middle East before. 13aD was perhaps the most classic Hercule Poirot novel, while The Clocks was kind of the most different. It is set in the 1960s, for one thing, which I couldn't tell because Agatha's writing style stayed the same, so it felt the same as the 1930s. What tipped me off were a few era mentions, plus Hercule is old in this one. He doesn't even come into the novel until a third of the way through the book at the absolute earliest. Sad Cypress was kind of the saddest, and we miss out on the classic HP end monologue. 

Overall, I really enjoyed reading these books, and while I guessed parts of some of the mysteries, I never guessed the whole thing or the right person. These really made my reference desk shifts go by much more quickly, and I recommend them. I will be giving these away, though.

• N or M - 4 stars
• Thirteen at Dinner - 4 stars
• Murder in Mesopotamia - 4 stars
• Sad Cypress - 3.5 stars
• The Clocks - 3.5 stars

Trigger warnings: murder, gore, blood, dead bodies, guns, Nazis, poison, sexism, probably more stuff

January 2017 books

The first book I read and finished this year was Debating Disney: Pedagogical Perspectives on Commercial Cinema, which was a series of essays about Disney films under different lens (feminism, race, gay or Semitic stereotyping, etc.) It was interesting but somewhat dry as it is an academic work, but I would recommend it if you like analyzing Disney movies and can stomach reading academia. In my notes I had put that some facts were incorrect, but I didn’t put what so now I don’t remember. This was a library book. I may have skimmed this a bit, rather than reading every essay (early January, 3.9/5 stars)

I actually read a lot of library books since mine were packed up in boxes until a few weeks ago. The next one I read was In the Open Hand: Sonnets from the Californian, which is a book of poetry by a faculty member at the university where I work. It was pretty good but the reading experience was marred somewhat by the fact that I met him and it’s kind of awkward reading love poems by someone you’ve personally met. Not his fault; the writing style was quite good. (early January, 3.5/5 stars)

C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity: A Biography is exactly that: the biography of a book. How meta is that? It went over the circumstances leading up to Mere Christianity being written, such as WWII and C.S. Lewis’s radio talks, as well as its reception and influence. This would be a great resource for someone wanting to write a book report on MC, or any other CSL megafan. I think I kinda skimmed this one towards the end as it is scholarly and dry. (mid-January, 4/5)

Later that month I went to my achilles’ heel, the thrift store, and bought several more books. Among them was a TV spinoff book, The Douche Journals, Volume 1: The Definitive Account of One Man's Genius. Basically the book is written as if it’s Schmidt from New Girl’s journal where he writes down every “clever” thing that caused him to be made to put money in the douchebag jar. It was just as crude and hilarious as I expected. (mid-January, 3.4/5)

I also acquired The Code of the Woosters at the thrift store, to my delight. These are laugh-out-loud funny, and I’m going to try to buy them all. I had seen parts of it from a BBC Jeeves and Wooster episode, but it was still hilarious.(mid-January, 4/5)

Also from the thrift store came The Mysterious Affair at Styles, my first Agatha Christie. I liked Hercule Poirot and the mystery was quite interesting, but I pretty much hated the narrator. He kept falling in love with every attractive woman and girl he saw, regardless of whether they were married or appropriate for him to date, then pouted when they didn’t like him back. His thoughts about the women were unnecessary and detracted from the story. I would have liked to know more of Poirot rather than that bimbo. I did like the story, but I won’t be keeping this one. (mid-January, 3.5/5)

Continuing my Artemis Fowl series reread, I read the fourth book, The Opal Deception. This one may have the most suspenseful plot of the series, and it pretty much held up reread-wise. (mid-January, 4/5)

My next library read was Youth and Sexuality in the Twentieth Century United States, which is a well-researched yet readable scholarly work. It was very interesting and showed that adolescence wasn’t as squeaky clean in the past as your grandparents would have you think (premarital sex was pretty common, for instance). The most interesting thing I learned was that children under 15 or so were expected to not be interested in the opposite sex at all, but in the same sex! Same-sex crushes were completely expected and seen as normal in older children and young teens. (lateish January, 4/5)

I was going to do a trimester-type post of my Jan-Mar books, but since I read so much in January, this is just for that month. That's why this post is so late.