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A character in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Caroline Sheppard

The doctor's sister, who never leaves the house and knows everything that happens in King's Abbot before it happens.

What they want

To know everything first, and to be asked.

The book

The Murder of Roger AckroydAgatha Christie, 1926

A village doctor tells the story of his neighbour's murder, and tells it honestly. That is the trick.

View the book

At a glance

In the book
The narrator's sister, keeping house in King's Abbot
Where she appears
Throughout, from the first page

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Caroline keeps house for her brother and runs an intelligence service out of the kitchen. Her sources are the milkman, the fishmonger, the maids and the wives of the village, and she is right far more often than she is wrong. She knows Mrs Ferrars killed her husband, she knows Ralph Paton is in the village, and she decides on sight that the foreigner next door is a hairdresser.

Agatha Christie said Caroline was the seed of Jane Marple. She is the reader's one honest guide to the narrator, and her teasing remarks about her brother's weak character are the only warnings the book gives about him.

How Caroline Sheppard Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The mongooseHer brother compares her to Kipling's mongoose, whose motto is to go and find out.
  • The networkNews reaches her through tradesmen and servants before it reaches the police.
  • The verdictsSuicide, poisoning, secret marriage: she calls each one before the evidence arrives.
  • The hairdresserHer theory about Poirot, held until he tells her otherwise and abandoned without embarrassment.
  • The Mah JongAn evening of the game with the neighbours, in Chapter 16, is her stage, and the gossip at the table is real evidence.
  • Her brotherShe says he is weak, and she says it fondly, and she is the only one who says it.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Caroline never learns the truth within the book. Sheppard's last thought is that Poirot will let her believe he died of something else, and that she will not be told her brother was a murderer.

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