During dinner, Flora announces her engagement to Ackroyd's stepson, Ralph Paton. At dinner that evening in Ackroyd's home of Fernly Park, his guests include his sister-in-law Mrs Cecil Ackroyd and her daughter Flora, big-game hunter Major Blunt, Ackroyd's personal secretary Geoffrey Raymond, and Dr James Sheppard, whom Ackroyd invited earlier that day. In King's Abbot, wealthy widow Mrs Ferrars unexpectedly commits suicide, distressing her fiancé the widower Roger Ackroyd. The book's narrator, Dr James Sheppard, introduces himself and explains these are his memoirs of a murder which happened in his town. The short biography of Christie which is included in 21st century UK printings of her books calls it her masterpiece. Howard Haycraft included it in his list of the most influential crime novels ever written. It is one of Christie's best known and most controversial novels, its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre. In 2013, the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever. The novel was well-received from its first publication. Soon after, Ackroyd is murdered and Poirot must come out of retirement to solve the case. Poirot retires to a village near the home of a friend, Roger Ackroyd, to pursue a project to perfect vegetable marrows. It is the third novel to feature Hercule Poirot as the lead detective.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in June 1926 in the United Kingdom by William Collins, Sons and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd at Wikisource

The murder of the roger ackroyd