Question

How did the two minute mysteries relate to beggining to unpack the mystery in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? Has the activities made you think of any red herrings in the text?

Answer 1

As in so many mystery novels, Roger Ackroyd is set in a small, isolated community where everybody knows everybody else. The isolated, close-knit setting 1) suggests that the criminal is someone who everybody knows, and 2) creates a paranoid, suspenseful mood, since the criminal is hiding a big secret from their neighbors. It’s also telling that the owners of the two most “important houses” in town are also the two main victims of the novel.