h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember *having* to stop up all night to finish "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". The revelation of whodunnit (or should that be "whodiddit"?) was masterful and completely unexpected.

NW

Agreed. Although it does break one of the most important rules of detective fiction, which is why it's so unexpected! The 'rules' include:

* The culprit should be someone we have met or heard about

* The vital clues should be included in the text (even if they're really well hidden)

* The narrator should not directly lie to us

and so on.

David

I generally find with Agatha Christie works the person who has done it is someone who is out of the country, or at least 50 miles away ...

As for some spoilers ...

- The Mousetrap ... the detective does it.
- And Then There Were None ... The Judge does it (having faked his death as the 5th victim).
- Murder on the Orient Express - they all do it (13 stabwounds/13 suspects).
- Death on the Nile - it's the couple (Simon McCorkin and ??).

BBS

PS Have to say that most of the Agatha Christie's I have read are unsolvable to the reader. There aren't many clues in the text.

Or they're so obscure... I remember one where the policeman did it, and the vital clue is a piece of pink plastic.

Oh, and in the Murder of Roger Ackroyd - the narrator did it.

David

Don't know how true this is but it seems believable given previous comments (of five years ago) ... I recently read somewhere that Christie would write the novel not knowing who the murderer was; then decide at the start of the final chapter to use the least likely suspect and go back and edit the earlier chapters to avoid any continuity problems.