The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot Series #4)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is perhaps the most controversial of Agatha Christie?s novels, and some consider it to to be her masterpiece. In 2013, fully 87 years after it was first published, the ?British Crime Writers? Association? voted it as the best crime novel ever. Although it seems to be a conventional orderly and analytical puzzle for the reader, the clever device she employs had such a big impact on the genre, that it has been considered one of the most influential crime novels ever written, with many ensuing imitations.

The peaceful English village of King?s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd?the man she had planned to marry?is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death, that taxes Hercule Poirot?s ?grey cells? before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.

This is the only book written by Agatha Christie to be featured in the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list.