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This novel was the first one to gain international attention for Christie. Millions began to read her books, and she became a household name. The novel features Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective Christie had introduced in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), both novels told in the first person. Unlike the first novel, in which the narrator is Poirot's friend Captain Hastings, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd features Dr. Sheppard as the narrator. He witnesses and narrates all the occurrences at King Abbot, a small English village, during the days of the murder of Ackroyd.
This novel was important because it showed aspects of Christie's mysteries that would resurface many times during the rest of her career. The first one is a so-called locked-room murder, in which the victim is found in a seemingly impenetrable room. Secondly, the solution to the mystery is surprising to most readers; Agatha Christie chooses a very unlikely killer in this and many other novels. The controversy that she sparked over this novel was such that many have written books attempting to prove that the detective, Poirot, was wrong when he named the killer. In this book we also see Poirot's personal traits: he methodically and carefully conducts his investigation, begging his friend Dr. Sheppard to "use his little brain cells" to arrive at the logical conclusion. This novel is an Agatha Christie classic; it has been published many times and has been made into several movies and plays.
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