Synopsis
A widow dies in King's Abbot. By nightfall, Roger Ackroyd knows she poisoned her husband and was being blackmailed. Her last letter has arrived. He wants to read it alone.
At 10:15, a telephone call sends Dr Sheppard back to Fernly Park. The butler denies making it. Behind a locked study door, Ackroyd sits dead with a dagger in his neck. The letter is gone.
Suspicion falls on his missing stepson, Ralph Paton. Flora Ackroyd turns to a neighbour whose retirement has so far involved growing vegetable marrows: Hercule Poirot.
With Sheppard beside him, Poirot begins asking questions. A voice heard through a door. A chair moved out of place. Footprints on a window ledge. Relatives and servants can account for the evening, but each has something to conceal.
As private debts and hidden attachments come to light, one explanation breaks another apart. Someone called before the body was found. Someone took the letter. Which of their secrets was worth killing for?
