Purportedly, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was one of Agatha Christie’s ten favorite novels. Definitely, it was voted by the British Crime Writers’ Association as the “Best Crime Novel of all Time.”

The novel opens with Roger Ackroyd knowing too much: he knew the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband; he suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. And then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.

However, the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Fortunately, one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—the estimable Monsieur Hercule Poirot.

Shortly after Christie finished this novel, she disappeared in what remains probably the least understood incident in her life. Terrie brought the issue and this article from History Extra to our attention, and the same incident is covered at length in this article from The New York Times.