After the publication of this novel, critics literally pounced on Agatha Christie, declaring her apostasy from the 'basic rules of detective fiction.' But over time, it was recognized as one of the author's best works—and gave the world a new rule of the genre: 'the reader must suspect all the characters in the book.'

Agatha Christie is the most published author of all time after Shakespeare. The circulation of her books is second only to that of his works and the Bible. Christie has sold more than a billion books worldwide in English and the same number in other languages. She is the author of eighty detective novels and short story collections, twenty plays, two books of memoirs, and six psychological novels, written under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Her characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have forever become exemplary heroes of the action genre.

At first, the murder of Squire Roger Ackroyd didn't seem mysterious to the police—everything pointed to the guilt of the murdered man's stepson. But Hercule Poirot, who recently moved to the area, once again deciding to retire, thinks otherwise. Ackroyd's niece, who doesn't believe the young man's guilt, asked him for help. So Poirot begins his investigation, surrounded by many suspects—relatives and acquaintances of the squire, each of whom had a stake in his death. The story is told from the perspective of Dr. Sheppard, the last person to see Ackroyd alive. With the help of his notes, Poirot must identify the cunning criminal...