--- description: Find out why 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' by Agatha Christie made the list. title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42306bc29179fc36/698a40864ee26244af31bc0b/TheMurderofRogerAckroyd.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  No list of the greatest mysteries and thrillers would be complete without an entry from [Agatha Christie](https://time.com/4029315/agatha-christie-best-novels/ "undefined"), the woman who earned a reputation as the “queen of crime” through her 66 acclaimed detective novels. Christie, who in 1955 became the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, is, according to Guinness World Records, the best-selling fiction writer ever. Her work has been adapted into more than 30 movies. --- ### More from TIME --- In _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd_, one of Christie’s early books to feature detective Hercule Poirot, the iconic sleuth sets out to solve the mystery of who murdered his friend. But Poirot isn’t the reader’s guide to the fatal events of the English village of King’s Abbott—it’s James Sheppard, a local doctor helping Poirot, who serves as the book’s narrator. Through Sheppard’s perspective, Christie manipulates and outwits the reader, building to an ending that feels earned in 2023 and was utterly shocking when the novel came out in 1926\. It’s a twist that inspired countless books that followed—and makes _Ackroyd,_ which the British Crime Writers Association voted the best crime novel of all time in 2013, so influential. Christie was well ahead of her time with this masterclass in unreliable narration. —_Tessa Berenson Rogers_ **Buy Now:** _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780063221086 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3QStTU4 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309158/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309158/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/"},"headline":"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:52:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:44.581Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309158/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42306bc29179fc36/698a40864ee26244af31bc0b/TheMurderofRogerAckroyd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42306bc29179fc36/698a40864ee26244af31bc0b/TheMurderofRogerAckroyd.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309158/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/","name":"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309158/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309158/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```