Link to Marginalia: https://www.reddit.com/r/bookclub/comments/rwpvq3/marginalia_the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_agatha/

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Schedule:

- Jan 26: Chapters 17-20

- Jan 28: Chapters 21-24

- Jan 30: Chapters 25-end

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Characters up to Chapter 20:

- Dr. James Sheppard - our main character, a doctor and brother to Caroline. He spends a lot of time pretending not to care for gossip but secretly loves it.

- Caroline - the whip-smart older sister of Dr. James, also a gossip.

- Poirot - detective

- Roger Ackroyd - deceased, described as the life of the town

- Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd - the sister-in-law to Roger, widowed. She prevented Roger from marrying his housekeeper. Has expressed interest in money and the property. She also dislikes being asked things directly and tends to shriek instead of answering them.

- Mrs. Ferrars - suicide victim who poisoned her husband, Mr. Ashley Ferrars, a mean drunk

- Captain Ralph Paton - the step-son of Roger Ackroyd, close friend of Dr. James. He is suspected by the police to be the murderer. Poirot suspects Flora knows where he is.

- Flora Ackroyd - step-cousin to Ralph but not related by blood, engaged. She is described by Dr. James as being attractive but he notes that she is generally disliked. She has something going on with Hector Blunt.

- Major Hector Blunt - Friend to Roger Ackroyd, the deceased, and well known as a big game hunter. He seems to have a crush on Flora, and is absolutely useless at flirting.

- Mr. Hammond - the family solicitor, or, lawyer.

- Mrs. Folliott - the previous employer of Miss Ursula Bourne - she was hiding something. Has no ability to lie.

- Miss Gannett - a Mah Jong party guest who doesn't play the game as well as the others, and overestimates her ability.

- Colonel Carter - a Mah Jong party guest. Dr. James thinks he is less worldly than he pretends to be, but he and Caroline indulge in him. He also pretends not to care for gossip, but loves it (much like Dr. James).

- Charles Kent - detained for potentially being the mysterious man Dr. James saw the night of the murder.

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Staff

- Miss Russell - the housekeeper Ackroyd likely would have wed if it were not interfered with. She insists something is wrong with her knee to get time with Dr. James to ask about poisons.

- Parker - the butler, described with suspicious behaviour and appearance. Poirot is absolutely convinced that he is innocent.

- Raymond - the secretary, described in extremely likeable terms. Poirot thinks he is hiding something.

- Miss Elsie Dale - a short term as a maid at the Ackroyd home. Dr. James described her as looking a bit stupid when we first met her, but later describes her as 'an exceedingly handsome girl'.

- Miss Ursula Bourne - the parlourmaid, who moved things in the study not to the liking of Roger Ackroyd, and gave her notice the day of the murder

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Police

- Inspector Davis - the one who arrived on scene first, seems to be like Poirot joining the case

- Colonel Melrose - the Chief Constable and is well known to Dr. James. His initial reaction to Poirot is concern that he will interfere with the investigation

- Inspector Raglan - Flora described as 'weaselly'. He seems to want recognition for solving the case, and takes great strides to do so quickly. He has dismissed evidence out of hand, and does not think out of the box. Dislikes Poirot (or any citizen) trying to take over the case.

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Ch17

- The day of the funeral for Mrs. Ferrars and Roger Ackroyd, Dr. James feels guilty for admitting to the party about the ring and is convinced that the entire town already knows by now.

- Poirot grabs Dr. James to terrify Parker into telling the truth. Poirot would prefer that Parker is the one who blackmailed Mrs. Ferrars, because he doesn't like the alternative. Poirot quickly uncovers that Parker blackmailed his previous employer for getting someone killed in the army. Because of this, Parker was eager to eavesdrop on his new employer when he thought he could blackmail him, as well.

- Poirot deduces that Parker is not the man who was blackmailing Mrs. Ferrars, and so he and Dr. James set off to visit Mr. Hammon, the family solicitor.

- The lawyer confirms that Mrs. Ferrars was losing a large sum, about 20,000 pounds a year in total, but he had assumed it to be paid off for an affair.

- Poirot deduces that for that amount of money it would be unlikely to be Parker as he would not continue employment as a butler. This leaves Raymond or Hector Blunt.

- There is a funny moment in this chapter when Dr. James invites Poirot over for lunch, which results in a very exeberant show of Caroline pantomiming a vegetarian and pretending to be not put out.

- Caroline thinks the murderer must be either Ralph or Flora, and she much prefers it to be Flora. Poirot responds by monologuing about a man who is otherwise a good man, who becomes swayed by the money put forth by blackmail and will kill as much as he needs to in order to keep his secret and his money.

- A man is detained at Liverpool named Charles Kent, possibly the stranger that Dr. James saw.

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Ch18

- Poirot, Dr. James, and Inspector Raglan go to the jail. Raglan mentions that the fingerprints did belong to the deceased (and poorly tries to take credit).

- Dr. James recognizes the jailed gentleman's voice and Charles Kent confirms it by recognizing the goose quill that Poirot shows him.

- Poirot determines that Charles Kent is, in fact, from Kent.

- At this moment, the case is solved for Poirot - he only has to unravel everything for everyone else.

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Ch19

- Inspector Raglan confirms Charles Kent's alibi, and states that with the amount of money he had on him at the bar, he must have stolen the fourty pounds. (This is very unlikely to be true.)

- Inspector Raglan tries to discredit Poirot as being mad because his comments make no sense to him.

- Poirot reveals that he believes Flora had been in Rogers bedroom, not with him. This changes the time of death as well. She takes the fourty pounds and pretends she came from the study to avoid suspicion.

- They are to confront Flora. She insists on having Hector Blunt stay in the room. Then she confirms she stole the money - and that is why she gets along with Ralph. She feels they are both deplorable. She runs out crying, and Blunt tells the Inspector that he stole the money, not her, and would testify to say as much.

- Poriot stops Blunt from leaving and tells him that Flora doesn't love Ralph. That Blunt should tell Flora his affections right away. Blunt leaves to find Flora.

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Ch20

- Inspector Raglan is upset because since the time of death is wrong, that means everyone's alibi's are invalid. He needs to go back to look at all of them again. The Inspector comes up with yet another incorrect theory.

- Dr. James sees all of his patients and then Poirot introduces Miss Russell as his last patient of the day so that they can interrogate her without arousing suspicion.

- Poirot is going to run a notice in the paper stating that Ralph Paton has been found at Liverpool (which is false).

- Poirot tells Miss Russell that Charles Kent has been arrested at Liverpool. Dr. James is suddenly struck that the familiarity he sensed in the stranger, Charles Kent, is in the voice - very similar to Miss Russell's. When Poirot reveals that Kent could have been the murderer, she immediately drops the act of ignorance and states that she knows he could not have done it.

- Miss Russell admits that Charles is her son, that she was meeting him in the summerhouse and didn't want to be discovered by the other servants. Charles took to drugs and Miss Russell was meeting Dr. James to see if there were a way to clean Charles up.