My least-favorite part of this book was figuring out who the killer was about two-thirds of the way through the book, and being right. I really hate that. I pretty much demand that the detective and the villain in a mystery book or show or movie should be smarter than I am. If I figure things out before the big reveal, I feel cheated. I don't try to figure them out -- I even actively try NOT to. But sometimes, it happens, and then I'm kinda bummed. Especially since several people told me to avoid spoilage on this, and that I was going to really enjoy the reveal. Oh well, it was still a fun Hercule Poirot mystery :-)
This one is kind of a locked-room mystery and kind of a house-party mystery, and also a cozy-village mystery. A rich guy gets murdered, lots of people who were at his big estate for a party are suspects, and so are lots of people in the village. There are some obvious suspects and some not-so-obvious ones, and Poirot's little grey cells get quite a workout before the end.
Particularly Good Bits:
It is odd, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial (p. 225).
"It is completely unimportant," said Poirot. "That is why it is so interesting," he added softly (p. 288).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, some innuendo and talk about unwed mothers, and a smattering of mild bad language.
This has been my fifth book read from my fourth Classics Club list, and also my 53rd book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.
Okay, I gotta say, you are the second person I've talked to who figured out the twist in "Roger Ackroyd" after being warned about spoilers. I'm beginning to suspect this book has become such a Big Thing in mystery-loving circles that it's hard to truly preserve the mystery... like, there are so many people telling you beforehand, "GREAT TWIST, you're gonna love it" that you're subconsciously on alert and then you spot the trick before the end.
ReplyDeletePlus, today's audiences are more primed for--well, you know, THE THING--than they were at the time the book was published.
Katie, in my case, I blame Sherlock Holmes. In one of his cases (I think "The Speckled Band," he remarks to Watson that when a doctor goes wrong, he is the first of criminals, and that line just popped into my head while reading this, and that was it.
DeleteBut yes, warnings about big twists make people expect big twists, so perhaps we should avoid those...
Ahhhhh! I remember that Holmes line! It's such a good one, so chilling.
DeleteHa! I've also guessed the murderer correctly! I mean, near the end I thought: it's quite obvious, there's no way THAT's the murderer, right? So, in the last chapter, I kinda hoped that I was wrong, but apparently not. :( Same as you, with murder mysteries, I always try NOT to figure out the murderer. I prefer to be surprised, but sometimes you just know. Maybe I've read too many Christie's?....
ReplyDeleteFanda! Okay! Yes, the closer we got to the end, the clearer it all was. I kept hoping for a final big twist that would surprise me, but no such luck.
DeleteSo nice to know I'm not the only one out there trying NOT to figure out the fictional mysteries!!!