Agatha Christie's Poirot : The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Links/ Cassettes (Bbc Radio Presents - Abridged Edition) [Abridged, Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Agatha Christie (Author), Michael Bakewell (Author), John Moffatt (Author), John Woodvine (Author), Laurence Payne (Author)

Book Description

Series: BBC Radio Presents | Publication Date: March 1, 1994

Christie's dapper Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, returns to take on two baffling mysteries, in a multivoice production from BBC Radio.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553472623
• ISBN-13: 978-0553472622
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,970,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Christie, Agatha

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Little Round Man with the Little Grey Cells, February 28, 2001

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Agatha Christie's Poirot : The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Links/ Cassettes (Bbc Radio Presents - Abridged Edition) (Audio Cassette)

Hercule Poirot was a short, fat, dapper detective who solved his cases by exercising his "little grey cells".

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" was Christie's fourth Poirot novel, while "Murder on the Links" was her second. In both Christie adopts the motif of narrating the story from the point of view of someone who undertakes to assist Poirot in the solution of the mystery. Christie introduces the cast of suspects, gives each of them a dark secret and a motive to lie, and piles up the circumstances in such a way that the flying fickle finger of suspicion points to every one of them at some time or another. She compounds the confusion by supplying false leads and deliberatly glossing over hot clues.

In each case Poirot holds his cards close to his vest, tantalizes the reader/listener with cryptic comments, and finds the most inconsequential-appearing facts to be highly significant. Eventually Poirot airs everyone's dirty laundry, explains his chain of deductive reasoning, reconstructs the crime in all its improbable complexity, and gets a confession. The stories are less mysteries than they are sliding block puzzles. Though extremely short on realism, they are long on entertainment value.

Although the BBC radio play had excellent production values, audio cassette may not be the best way to enjoy a Poirot mystery. I listen to radio plays as I drive on business, and I find the Poirot plays hard to follow because of the large cast of characters and the complexities of plotting. Poirot could probably be enjoyed more readily in print. You could then read, re-read, take time out to mull over the complexities, and follow the story much better. Probably the best way to enjoy Poirot would be to read the story first, and then listen to the radio play.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece among Christie's Best, May 15, 2004

By 

Peter Smith "petersm52" (Northern Wisconsin, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Agatha Christie's Poirot : The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Links/ Cassettes (Bbc Radio Presents - Abridged Edition) (Audio Cassette)

I have listened to these BBC radio adaptations many times over the last 15 years and am always entertained by the quality of the stories, the actors, and the plots. "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" is simply a brilliant mystery, one of Agatha's best, with a dozen legitimate suspects and a most ironic ending. This mystery takes place in a village Hercule had retired to to raise "vegetables" and was having a devil of a time at it. But, murder followed Poirot to the country and he did his best to confound the police, the suspects, and even the murderer. "Murder on the Links" is also a wonderful mystery with several suspects and two corpses not one. By the time Poirot and Hastings travel to France in response to a summons from a rich man who was concerned about his safety, the man has been brutally murdered. Captain "Arthur" Hastings plays an active role in this mystery, falling for one of the suspects in a big way. The John Moffatt's portrayal of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian wonder, is always classic and is so in both of these stories. I stongly recommend these BBC radio shows to all Agatha Christie fans, especially those that enjoy Hercule Poirot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Agatha Christie story by far!, October 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Agatha Christie's Poirot : The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Links/ Cassettes (Bbc Radio Presents - Abridged Edition) (Audio Cassette)

As a Christie addict, having read all of her Poirot and Marple stories many times over, I can only say that "Roger Ackroyd" stands out as the best of the best. Even now, knowing the ending, I enjoy rereading the book, with all the delicious and subtle (but misleading) hints to the grand conclusion. And to the first-time reader, the ending comes as quite a surprise. The fabled Miss Christie leads the reader down so many lovely garden paths before the perfectly logical denouement! Delicious! The audio version is beautifully performed, and does proper justice to the book.