Mrs Cecil Ackroyd

In the Hercule Poirot novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Mrs Cecil Ackroyd is the widow of Roger's brother Cecil. She is described as being "all chains and teeth and bones. A most unpleasant woman. She has small flinty blue eyes". She is glad to know about her daughter Flora's engagement with Ralph Paton.

She and her daughter have been living at Fernly Park for the past two years and are financially dependent on Roger. With Roger's murder, she inherited ten thousand pounds.

Mrs Ackroyd had entered her brother-in-law's study to see the terms of his will but at that point one of the parlourmaids, a Miss Bourne, had come in and she told the maid that she was looking for the "Punch" magazine and leaved. She came across Roger Ackroyd, when she heard Miss Bourne ask to talk with Ackroyd. Poirot (who is considered by the lady to be a "terrible French, or Belgian," man who wouldn't have found the murderer) initially believed that it was Roger who fired her and not the opposite. For the reason of Miss Bourne asking a reunion visit page Ursula Bourne.__HIDDENCAT__

Portrayals
In the ITV Agatha Christie's Poirot episode loosely adapted from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, she was portrayed by actress Vivien Heilbron. Here, she is renamed Mrs Vera Ackroyd. She is first seen drinking tea with her daughter and talking about her engagement to Ralph Paton. She is a considerably more unpleasant character here as she is described by Dr Sheppard as a scavenger who was living at Ackroyd's only for his money. Like the original character, she receives the same amount of money with Roger's death and she is seen assisting Poirot's reunion, which Mrs Ackroyd finds meaningless. Something similar happens in the original novel where she tries to find an excuse to go home.