Although Poirot engages in plenty of questionable behavior, he clearly has a strong ethical code. After he arranges for the fake news story to be published, for instance, Ursula Bourne comes forward and admits that she was married to Ralph Paton-a crucial piece of evidence that she would never have revealed otherwise. For Poirot, these deceptions are justified by the “greater good” of solving the case, and indeed, his lies are often quite useful in gathering new information. At various points in the book, Poirot is shown to be willing to lie, manipulate suspects, and engage in other behavior that many people would consider “wrong.” He deceives suspects into giving away important information about themselves, and in the middle of the book, Poirot takes matters into his own hands by posting a fictitious story in the local newspaper, explaining that the police have arrested Ralph Paton, the prime suspect in Roger’s murder. He’s motivated by a personal, philosophical interest in the case of Roger’s murder (see Detection theme), and answers to his own personal code of right and wrong. Over the course of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie draws an important distinction between the law-symbolized by Inspector Raglan, who is duty-bound to investigate Roger Ackroyd’s murder and prosecute the killer in court-and ethics, symbolized by Hercule Poirot.įrom the beginning, Christie shows that Poirot marches to the beat of his own drum.

Murder of the roger ackroyd