A car off the road, lost in the night fog of South Wales. A large house, where a man sits in his wheelchair in his grand library, shot through the head. A woman in pearls, holding a revolver. An unexpected guest enters from the garden.
Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest was written in 1958 as a play. She had already adapted some of her novels into plays such as Ten Little Indians (1943), Death On The Nile (1945), and most famously The Mousetrap (1952) which has run continuously for 60 years.
Charles Osborne, a noted playwright and Christie biographer turned The Unexpected Guest into a novel in 1999.
Mr. Starkwedder breaks down on a foggy country road and goes to a nearby home to discover a dead body, the frightened wife, the butler, the nanny, the dame of the house, and shortly, the inspector and poet quoting sergeant. A plan is hatched by one of them to blame it on an enemy from the past, who would be hard to trace having since moved to Canada - 18th and 34th street in Calgary, Alberta to be exact! (The city I happened to live in while reading this!).
Then there is the case of the blackmailing butler - did he really see the culprit do it?
The characters are thin, but well drawn and the pace is fun and light, with enough twists to keep you guessing. She presents the suspects, then points to one - oops, no the other one... hang on, is it the Nanny? After the big reveal on the last few pages, I felt the pleasure of being tricked by the master craftsman that Agatha Christie was.
Charles Osbourne did a great job of staying on the line between play and novel. I can see the mechanics of how it was staged, though still be involved in a light who-done-it mystery.
Very enjoyable romp, though a very quick read.
1999 / Hardcover / 224 pages
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