January 25 - 31

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Well, I was right. I had to force myself to stick with it a bit. It wasn't poorly written or anything, it's just not what keeps my attention in general. Simply doesn't do it for me. Prepare for some major spoilers: the narrator, James Sheppard, is the murderer. OOOOHH. (Read sarcastically.) I'm not all that surprised by the revelation...it felt almost... weak. I had really been curious as to whose motivations we could have matched to the murder, I started to feel for the characters, to fear my favorites being the murderer. Unfortunately, when Poirot turned around and said "Aha, it is you!" and Sheppard began to address the reader in his final apology chapter, I was rather deflated and more or less skimmed my way through it. Blah, blah, blah. It felt to me like when someone asks you the safest way to do something, and tells you the safest way is not to do it. That's a stupid answer. That's not doing it safely, that's not doing it at all. Maybe I'm a bit jaded and these "big twists" don't seem so big to me anymore because I've read a good amount of stories where that's the case. I think the fact that straight up mystery novels just aren't my thing had a lot to do with it too.

Besides the disappointing conclusion, the book was written well and everything. It would probably work for the right kind of reader. For me, though, it all feels too distant and far away. From the phrases I didn't understand to the distinct old-timey feel of it, everything was too foreign for me to view it realistically and have any kind of appropriate emotional response. When clues consist of colors of boots and secret engagements, I just don't buy it. It felt cartoony, like Scooby-Doo was going to come around any moment with his own input. It especially paled in comparison with a five page short story I read at the same time as this, that was far more chilling and disturbing. FIVE PAGES, and it was so realistic and twisted that I shivered at the end and went to hug someone. If that sounds intriguing to you, check out Queeny by Ridley Pearson, from "The Best American Mystery Stories 2007" (Otto Penzler).