Spoilers Warning: If you are reading or are intending to read above book, please do not proceed unless you want to know murderer.
Till now I have read three of Agatha Christie books. The first was "The Mystery of Blue Train". It was a really great book. I tried my best to guess the Culprit, with no success at all. Then I read "The Mysterious Mister Quin". It was a set of short stories. I was not much impressed by that book. It was more of a supernatural thing than a murder mystery. Last week my brother brought the book "The Murder of Roger Ackroyed"....
Well, I don't know why but I didn't start the book exactly the way I usually do. I went to the last page (rather the back page) of the book which generally contains a short para from the book. I started reading it, but there wasn't any para from the book. There was a mention of how controversial the book was. In fact, it was mentioned that some of the newspapers called Agatha Christie a "Cheater". Now that was strange, given her reputation. And why would any Publication make a bad publicity of the book it wants to sell. At the end it said that book also contains a preface written by the Author. Hmmm... I went to the preface, read it, and found it on the similar lines as the back page. In this kind of perplexed state I started reading the book. The first para was about 4 lines. Then came the key moment! The 2nd para started with "I". A sudden thought process was ignited by that "I". Hey man... I have feeling I know something about this book... At the same time, a small incident which occurred in college appeared in my mind which was insignificant but was still in some corner in my memory... It was Tha n Maddy talking.... Maddy had just written an article for Nirmaan.. on Hecule Poirot... They were discussing his books..especially the one with First person narration... I still remember Tha saying in her patent style "....and flip.... it was the same person.... I couldn't believe it"...
Oh yes.. I know this book... Its the same... He is the killer... the narrator himself....
After that it was as if reading the book for the second time. Agatha Christie has done an unbelievable job in writing this book. Check out the following lines from the book which shows her greatness:
"The letters were brought in at twenty minutes to nine. It was just ten minutes to nine when I left him, the letter still unread. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle, looking back and wondering if there was anything I had left undone."
When the narrator narrates this at the start you simply don't think about what happened between 8.40 and 8.50 pm. Well, the narrator killed the Roger Ackroyed.........
Till now I have read three of Agatha Christie books. The first was "The Mystery of Blue Train". It was a really great book. I tried my best to guess the Culprit, with no success at all. Then I read "The Mysterious Mister Quin". It was a set of short stories. I was not much impressed by that book. It was more of a supernatural thing than a murder mystery. Last week my brother brought the book "The Murder of Roger Ackroyed"....
Well, I don't know why but I didn't start the book exactly the way I usually do. I went to the last page (rather the back page) of the book which generally contains a short para from the book. I started reading it, but there wasn't any para from the book. There was a mention of how controversial the book was. In fact, it was mentioned that some of the newspapers called Agatha Christie a "Cheater". Now that was strange, given her reputation. And why would any Publication make a bad publicity of the book it wants to sell. At the end it said that book also contains a preface written by the Author. Hmmm... I went to the preface, read it, and found it on the similar lines as the back page. In this kind of perplexed state I started reading the book. The first para was about 4 lines. Then came the key moment! The 2nd para started with "I". A sudden thought process was ignited by that "I". Hey man... I have feeling I know something about this book... At the same time, a small incident which occurred in college appeared in my mind which was insignificant but was still in some corner in my memory... It was Tha n Maddy talking.... Maddy had just written an article for Nirmaan.. on Hecule Poirot... They were discussing his books..especially the one with First person narration... I still remember Tha saying in her patent style "....and flip.... it was the same person.... I couldn't believe it"...
Oh yes.. I know this book... Its the same... He is the killer... the narrator himself....
After that it was as if reading the book for the second time. Agatha Christie has done an unbelievable job in writing this book. Check out the following lines from the book which shows her greatness:
"The letters were brought in at twenty minutes to nine. It was just ten minutes to nine when I left him, the letter still unread. I hesitated with my hand on the door handle, looking back and wondering if there was anything I had left undone."
When the narrator narrates this at the start you simply don't think about what happened between 8.40 and 8.50 pm. Well, the narrator killed the Roger Ackroyed.........
Comments
Btw abt the line "u neva knw", thats my favorite. It gives me strangest of feelings these days.... why? i will tell u , just wait for few more days.
The reason that I read one italicized I in the book. :)