CC-VI The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as a detective story with difference// Write a critical note on the suspects and their motives// plot structure//incredible twist at the end of the novel

The detective story is a form that encourages both the detective and the reader to make suppositions. In the first detective stories written by Edgar Allan Poe, his detective Dupin makes a set of ingenious suppositions that solve the crime. This solution to the crime comes as a surprise to the reader who has been forming his own set of signs or clues found in the story, by both the detective and the reader is what makes it a detective story. Every sign can have multiple functions in the text. And this provides scope for leading the reader towards a complex yet complete meaning. As the narrative progresses, the pattern keeps as it proceeds and then presents reader with a final pattern at the end.

                           To begin with, the pattern of transformation is very essential in the detective story. the opposition between the element of deception and truth, and the trick of unveiling the truth hidden behind a fabric of deception, is one of the distinguishing features of the detective story. In Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the reader is made aware of this ever changing face of truth. The narrative offers diverse possibilities and emphasizes the shifting perspective of the puzzle. As Doctor Sheppared tells the story of the crime, he compares it to a jigsaw puzzle as well. In "In Chapter, he tells the reader that  _"....It was like a jig-saw puzzle to which everyone contributed their own little piece of knowledge or discovery. But their task ended there. To poirot alone belongs the renown of fitting those pieces into their correct place".

       In the stories of Agatha Christie the narrator and the detective share the secret to a point and then poirot holds back the secret which he will reveal only at the end. Half way through the novel, the narrative draws the reader's attentions to this formula. But "Chapter 14"points out  the divergence of the ways of poirot and the narrator. This is necessary because poirot must screen the secret of the crime from the reader. The narrator too has his secrets , as do most of the others characters in the story. Poirot from this point of the story not only learns others' secrets but also keeps the biggest secret to himself, outdoing the Criminal in Secrecy. Doctor Sheppared is amazed as Poirot sorts out the secrets of the Ackroyd household, but what he still cannot believe is that poirot will discover his own closely guarded secret. 

         The story of the murder described here is the most glaring example of confidence betrayed. The crime centers round blackmail and murder. both the murders betray trust , the first betrays the trust one has in one's closest friend. The crimes stand out in the backdrop of a society in which money and disloyalties. Ursula's husband ralph does not think it wise to disclose his marriage as his stepfather (Roger Ackroyd) would probably not approve of his marriage a secret in order to take money from his stepfather. He and Flora get engaged because such an arrangement gets both of then out of financial difficulties. Flora steals from her uncle because she has no money of her own and her uncle does not  like all the Golden Age detective stories. The plot manages to steer things towards a comfortable ending.

          Reticence is the unique feature of a detective story, for it is a pattern of concealments( usually the work of the author of a detective story) is adopted here by the narrator Dr. Sheppared who works for a purpose of his own. He regrets the work of detection at the end of the story- "But wish Hercule poirot had never retired from work come here to grow vegetable marrows". He becomes surprised when poirot demands to read his manuscript for he has made fun of poirot in his work and has secretly written things he would never wish to say to him. On one hand, Sheppard is embarrassed and on the other ,he is is tempted to hear Poirot's appraisal of his work. Poirot points out that he has been reticent about himself. In this detective story concealment is practiced, not by hiding the truth behind the screens constructed to hamper the reader's vision in the story, but by drawing the person who should conventionally have been hidden behind a screen very close to the reader. The story destroys the distance at which the reader feels most comfortable while he/she judges the characters( with the exception of the detective with whom the reader is expected to identity) in a detective story. 

    Thus, the novel contains both narrator as well as reader within it. Through the reading of the text the reader within it. Through the reading of the text the reader delves into the secrets of all the characters in the story weighing the reasons they give for their concealments. Yet,, this alone does alone does not make a detective story stand out for this often depends on the most skilful telling of a tale. And the skilful narrator  may be knavish and full of wiles for he can puzzle the reader by practicing all kinds of deceptions. It is the constant feeling of seeing of seeing the truth through layers of deception that readers enjoy in detective fiction. In this novel, Agatha Christie has practiced the greatest deception on the reader by changing the rules of the game in such a way that the signs and clues that the reader alights are destorted beyond the accepted norms of the genre. It is this quality of  combining traditional and unexpected aspects of the genre that have made readers remember this story even when thousands of murders have been committed and solved in the pages of these novels where the author follows the rules more scruprlously.