The Unexpected Guest
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4.6 • 13 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
A young man, broken down in the fog, witnesses a murder he is asked to conceal… A full-length novel adapted by Charles Osborne from Agatha Christie’s acclaimed play.
The confession was just the beginning.
Lost in the fog, a stranger seeks refuge in a nearby house. But when he enters he finds a woman with a smoking gun, standing over the body of her dead husband.
She admits to the murder, but her confession is anything but convincing. Is it possible that she did not commit the murder after all? And if so, who is she shielding?
The house is full of suspects, and a tangled web of lies reveals family secrets and chilling motives.
Reviews
For Black Coffee:
‘A lively and light-hearted read which will give pleasure to all those who have long wished that there was just one more Christie to devour’
— Antonia Fraser, Sunday Telegraph
‘A worthy addition to the Christie canon’
— The Spectator
About the author
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, the most popular detective since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime and her works have sold over two billion copies – 80 crime books, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.
Charles Osborne was born in Brisbane in 1927. He is known internationally as an authority on opera, though has had a lifelong passion for Agatha Christie’s works. His previous books include The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie and Black Coffee.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As he did with Black Coffee (1998), Osborne has taken one of Christie's original play scripts and turned it into a (slight) novel. For those who can't see the play in production or who find a script dull or difficult reading, Osborne's adaptation may fill a need. But Osborne has added little flesh to the bones of the drama, which, with its single-room setting, absolutely retains the feel of a play merely masquerading as a novel rather than transformed into one. That's not all bad, as this novelization preserves the lightning-quick pace of the original. Christie's play had its premiere in 1958, yet remains undated by the passing years. When a stranger having car trouble at night on a lonely road enters a house through the French windows of its study, he finds an invalid who has been shot dead and a woman (his wife) standing nearby and holding a gun. Apparently on impulse, the stranger decides to help the woman hide her crime. Those two plus a small cast--the victim's mother; the victim's teenage half-brother; his housekeeper/secretary; and his male nurse--parade kaleidoscopically in and out of the study with two investigating police officers. Christie cleverly shifts suspicion and parcels out new facts and perspectives in marvelous fashion, proving ingeniously that the obvious isn't always obvious.
