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A character in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Roger Ackroyd

The squire of Fernly Park, a self-made man who meant to marry the widow next door and learns on the last night of his life why she is dead.

What they want

To read the letter alone and know who drove the woman he loved to her death.

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.

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At a glance

In the book
The victim; master of Fernly Park
Where he appears
Chapters 1 to 5

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Ackroyd made his money in wagon wheels and lives like a country gentleman. He is a widower with a stepson, Ralph Paton, whom he has spoiled and quarrelled with, and a household of relatives and staff who all depend on him. He is generous in large ways and mean in small ones. He had meant to marry Mrs Ferrars, and her death has shaken him.

He is alive for four chapters. In the study after dinner he tells Sheppard the whole story, and the story is the book's engine: a poisoning, a blackmailer, and a letter he insists on reading alone.

How Roger Ackroyd Is Portrayed

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

  • The moneyWagon wheels, the narration says, and the manner of a man who has never quite stopped counting.
  • The stepsonRalph Paton, whose debts he pays and whose marriage he wants to arrange.
  • The confessionHe tells Sheppard that Mrs Ferrars admitted poisoning her husband and being blackmailed since.
  • The letterBrought in at twenty to nine; he wants to read it alone, and sends the doctor away.
  • The chairFound in the grandfather chair in the study with a dagger from his own silver table in his neck.
  • The voiceHeard through the study door at half past nine, refusing a demand for money.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Ackroyd was stabbed by Sheppard at ten to nine, before the doctor left the study. The voice heard at half past nine was a dictaphone he had bought on trial, which Sheppard set to play and later removed.

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