In the small English village of King's Abbot, a widow's suicide has stirred up dreadful rumors of blackmail and deception. Most shocking of all is the subsequent murder of her lover Roger Ackroyd, stabbed to death in his own study by an unknown assailant. There are suspects and motives aplenty, and rumors that his neighbor, the recently retired detective Hercule Poirot, doesn't have a clue who did the dastardly deed....

Setting up the traditional rules of mystery only to shatter them, Christie delivers her most famously shocking detective novel. As Dorothy L. Sayers said, "Christie fooled you [all]..."