# The Murder of Roger Ackroyd — Character guide

> Key figures in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

- [Dr. Sheppard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/dr_sheppard.md): Sheppard moves between Fernly Park's drawing rooms and his sister's breakfast table, treating the murder as both medical puzzle and neighborhood gossip. He withholds more than he tells, and his careful discretion—especia
- [Hercule Poirot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/hercule_poirot.md): Poirot arrives in King's Abbot expecting quiet retirement and instead finds a case that flatters his vanity and his method in equal measure. He works through the drawing room with maddening politeness, asking impertinent
- [Roger Ackroyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/roger_ackroyd.md): Ackroyd dominates Fernly Park with money, opinion, and an unforgiving temper, and his household revolves around his moods. He is generous with legacies and stingy with forgiveness, and his decision to reveal Ralph and Fl
- [Flora Ackroyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/flora_ackroyd.md): Flora moves through the aftermath of her uncle's death with a poise that reads as either courage or calculation. She is caught between loyalty to Ralph, her secret fiancé, and the mounting evidence that he had every reas
- [Ralph Paton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/ralph_paton.md): Ralph is the kind of man money runs through, and his secret marriage to Ursula Bourne gives him both a motive and a reason to hide. When he vanishes rather than face the police, the circumstantial case against him harden
- [Caroline Sheppard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/caroline_sheppard.md): Caroline runs King's Abbot's informal intelligence network through servants, tradesmen, and sheer force of curiosity, and she is usually right. Her running commentary on Mrs. Ferrars, the Ackroyd household, and everyone'
- [Parker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/parker.md): Parker keeps Fernly Park running with the smooth, expressionless efficiency of a man who has perfected the art of being unnoticed. When Sheppard arrives breathless with news of a murder, Parker's blank composure cracks i
- [Major Blunt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/major_blunt.md): Hector Blunt has shot more wild animals than any man alive, yet his odd, enduring friendship with the gregarious Roger Ackroyd puzzles everyone who knows them both. He speaks in jerky fragments, avoids women by reputatio
- [Geoffrey Raymond](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/geoffrey_raymond.md): Geoffrey Raymond is the efficient, well-mannered presence who keeps Roger Ackroyd's papers filed and his household running — and who knows more about the family's private arrangements than he lets on. He moves easily bet
- [Ursula Bourne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/ursula_bourne.md): Ursula Bourne serves at Fernly Park with the steady, resolute manner of a woman who has made up her mind about something. She is secretly married to Ralph Paton, and when Ackroyd announces Ralph's engagement to Flora, Ur
- [Miss Russell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/miss_russell.md): Miss Russell runs the household with a chilly efficiency, and she has no patience for Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd's gushing charity. She professes sympathy for the dependent widow while making clear she herself works for her livi
- [Inspector Raglan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/inspector_raglan.md): Inspector Raglan represents the official machinery of justice in King's Abbot: competent, procedural, and confident in the obvious trail of evidence pointing toward Ralph Paton. He is the man Poirot pointedly does not in
- [Mrs. Ferrars](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/mrs_ferrars.md): Mrs. Ferrars lived quietly at King's Paddock until her husband's death made her the subject of village gossip, and her own suicide days before Roger Ackroyd's murder leaves everyone uneasy. Blunt recalls her as fascinati
- [Charles Kent](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/charles_kent.md): Charles Kent is picked up after the murder with ten pounds in his pocket and a story that places him at the Dog and Whistle at the crucial hour. When Poirot suggests his name hints at a birthplace he denies, Kent flushes
- [Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/mrs_ackroyd.md): Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd occupies Fernly Park as a dependent relation, forever producing handkerchiefs meant for display rather than tears. When she learns Roger left twenty thousand pounds to Flora instead of her, she confide
- [Mr. Hammond](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/mr_hammond.md): Roger Ackroyd's solicitor, who reads the will to the family.
- [Inspector Davis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/inspector_davis.md): A police inspector from Liverpool who assists in the case.
- [Miss Gannett](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_murder_of_roger_ackroyd_se/characters/miss_gannett.md): A local gossip who spreads rumors about the murder.

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