The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Detective Club Crime Classics)

Description

Agatha Christie's most audacious crime mystery, reissued to mark 90 years since it was first published with a facsimile cover from 1931. Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew the woman he loved had poisoned her first husband, that someone was blackmailing her, and that as a consequence she had just taken her own life. But as he read the letter that would tell him the identity of her mysterious blackmailer, he was stabbed to death in a locked room . . . The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of Agatha Christie's most brilliant detective novels and the book that catapulted her to worldwide renown. As a play, under the title of Alibi, it then enjoyed a long and successful run with Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot. First published in May 1926 by Collins, and joining their Detective Story Club imprint in August 1931 to tie in with the release of the film version starring Austin Trevor as Poirot, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd remains as powerful and shocking today as when it was first published 90 years ago. THIS DETECTIVE STORY CLUB CLASSIC is introduced by crime fiction expert Tony Medawar, who investigates the book's pivotal role in Agatha Christie's success story.

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 30 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

"A classic - the book has worthily earned its fame." Irish Independent "The truly startling denouement is uncommonly original." Books "One of the landmarks of detective literature." H.R.F. Keating, Crime & Mystery: The 100 Best Books