Girls, I am telling you, I am on a reading frenzy, this Summer. It is like I cannot read one book fast enough, before I am thinking about the next one I will be on to.
As someone said to me, recently, what would a Summer read be, without Agatha Christie. So, when I was presented with "The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd," I was pretty sure I had read it years ago, but so long ago, it wouldn't make any difference. And it did not.
Now, over the years I have read at least a dozen of Christie's works. In many cases--and this was one--with my background, and current "Cold Case" obsession, I can generally figure out who the culprit is, and I did here. But not while enjoying the opportunity of playing along with Hercule Poirot, or admiring Christie's plot construction. Though I have to say, the solution in her best work, "And Then There Were None," I never saw coming, and you simply have to read my favorite, "Crooked House," which precedes "The Bad Seed" by five years.
"The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd" is as tightly constructed as a game of Clue, something I owned when younger, and am rather familiar with. I kept picturing the novel's cozy, British settings, as a giant Clue board. And played along with Poirot, as we moved the pieces.
As well as arriving at the same conclusion. I love being stumped, but being able to solve the mystery should not deprive a reader of the pleasure of reading one, as long as that mystery is well written. And that is a certainty, with Dame Agatha.
Her greatest mystery of all was her life. What happened to her, during the time she vanished? There is absolutely no truth to the rumor she had tea with Amelia Earheart. And Elvis had not even been sighted, then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I suppose we will never know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They call her "the original Gone Girl"
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOf course! I love it!