The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Christie - B+

               This ninety-six year old novel is considered the greatest murder mystery ever written.  It is narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, the general practitioner in King's Abbot. Roger Ackroyd was troubled by the suicide of his fiancee, Mrs. Ferrar, who had confessed to him that she had poisoned her husband a year earlier.  Ackroyd was reading a letter she had posted to him explaining that she was being blackmailed when he was murdered in his study. The letter is missing, presumably taken by the blackmailer/killer. All facts point to Ralph Paton, Ackroyd's step-son and fiance of his niece, Flora. Paton was in financial trouble and Ackroyd was considering cutting him off. Ralph disapeared the night Ackroyd was killed. The following day, Flora asked Hercule Poirot, noted private detective, now quietly retired in the village, to find the murderer. He accepted immediately and began to interview the staff. One of his first conclusions was that Ralph, notwithstanding all of the circumstantial evidence, was innocent. Slowly and methodically, which is Poirot's method, he examines the people in the household and unearths something each person is holding back. However, whatever the lie is, he says it is not relevant to his search.  He pursues and deduces - oh what an insult to Dr. John Watson - that the narrator is the killer. It was Dr. Sheppard who had learned how Mr. Ferrar had died and proceeded to blackmail the murderer/widow. He did so to pay his extensive gambling debts. Greatest ever? I think not.