Written during a period of turmoil in the Queen of Crime’s life, shortly before she vanished and at a time when she was moving publisher and facing the breakdown in her marriage, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is often proclaimed as one of her finest works.
As such, a version has been released by the Folio Society, a unique publishing house that takes some of the finest stories and books from across the literary market and creates works of art with some of the finest illustrators in the industry to produce beautiful books. The publishing house creates glorious books that are stunningly bound and look like those pristine volumes you see in fancy libraries.
Its latest offering, its version of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, is a classic example of the stunning books the Folio Society is renowned for creating. It has been bound in majestic dark blue hardback binding with gold lettering down the spine and a vast picture on the cover depicting one of the events in the novel in colourful detail.
Encapsulating the greatest of her literary quirks The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has a truly innovative plot featuring red herrings, an unreliable narrator and an exquisite array of dastardly characters. Undoubtedly the ending, in which Poirot makes a moral choice about the fate of the killer, is the inspiration for Dorothy L Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, which features a similar finale and was published in 1928, two years after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Andrew Davidson’s illustrations are stunning and evoke the period in question and the humours nature of Christie’s most famed detective and his unusual methods. They also fit beautifully with the style of the period and transport readers back to a time of sumptuous décor, splendid country houses and neatly tailored sartorial elegance.
This edition also features an introduction by Sophie Hannah, a crime writer who is not only an authority on Christie’s works but has also bought Poirot back to life in three amazing books. She is the perfect person to discuss the novel, and she gives an intriguing overview of the origins of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and its place in the Christie cannon.
In all this was an inspired choice for the Folio Society to publish, as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the Christie cannon that best lends itself to being illustrated in such a beautiful way. If anyone from the publishing house happens to be reading this then I can recommend as a future option Dead Man’s Folly, a novel set in the grounds of a magnificent stately home and featuring, as a plot device no less, an array of sumptuous gowns and vast hats which will make for truly amazing illustrations.
To find out more about the Folio Society and the selection of Christie novels it has on offer have a look at their website HERE.
The Dorset Book Detective 
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