Agatha Christie crime collection: Murder of Roger Ackroyd; They do it with mirrors; Mrs McGinty’s dead. Agatha Christie. 1988.

Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Who killed the wealthy Roger Ackroyd, notoriously in love with recent suicide widely suspected of poisoning her dead husband…..? A pretty problem indeed to set village tongues a-wagging. There was to be no lack of theories. These mysterious events provide an opportunity for one of fiction’s most famous detectives to apply his own triumphant brand of logic to their solution. This intriguing mystery, presented through the eyes of the local doctor, who himself unwittingly reveals an important clue, established the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot as one of the immortals of the British crime Story.

They do it with mirrors

The professional illusionist relies largely on his skill in misdirecting the attention of his audience and making actions of no consequence seem to be of immense significance. Knowing this does not tell you how the trick was done. When the techniques of the skilled illusionist are applied to the deadly business of murder - in this case in the unusual setting of a country house that has been turned into a reform school - all the ingredients of a first class mystery are present. But Miss Marple, that ‘nice old spinster lady’ with an uncannily sharp mind is there to unravel the cleverly contrived perplexities of this Agatha Christie classic.

Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Whoever brutally bludgeoned Mrs McGinty to death for the sake of her pathetically small savings was clearly no gentleman. The motive seems to be as clear as it is sordid, and suspicion becomes directed where circumstances dictate. The case seems to be an ‘open and shut’ one so far as the hard facts of the evidence are concerned. But facts, even if they never lie, are not always quite what they seem and can sometimes be misleading as Hercule Poirot is able to demonstrate. Others, of little apparent importance, can turn out to be very important indeed. For example: the photograph that Mrs McGinty recognized just before her savage killing……..