The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) is one of Agatha Christie's most celebrated novels, featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. In the quiet village of King's Abbot, wealthy widower Roger Ackroyd is found stabbed to death shortly after revealing that his fiancée, Mrs. Ferrars, had poisoned her first husband and was being blackmailed. The prime suspect is Ackroyd's stepson, Ralph Paton, who is heavily in debt and has mysteriously disappeared. Poirot, newly retired to the village, is persuaded to investigate. Narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, Poirot's neighbor, the novel is renowned for its shocking twist ending, widely regarded as one of the most ingenious in detective fiction.
