Black Coffee - Hardcover

Christie, Agatha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031219241X ISBN 13: 9780312192419

Publisher: St Martin's Press, 1998

Synopsis

Master sleuth Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings head to Surrey at the request of England's premier physicist, Sir Claud Amory, only to find the client dead, a top-secret formula missing, and a house filled with suspects, in a novel adapted from Christie's original play. 75,000 first printing. Mystery Guild.

About this title

Review:

Subtitled "A New Hercule Poirot Novel", Black Coffee is actually an Agatha Christie play recrafted as a book meant to be read rather than seen on the stage. The story was first produced in 1930, and Charles Osborne has done little to it except string the dialogue and stage directions together in paragraph form. Christie loyalists will welcome and applaud his dedication to the original, but it does seem as though he could have given it a bit more flair. Still, Poirot himself, bumbling Captain Hastings, and obsequious George are all in good form and it is amusing to find them engaged in another adventure, with an interesting assortment of possible murderers, blackmailers, and innocent (if suspicious) bystanders.

The novel opens as Poirot receives a summons at his breakfast table from England's premier physicist, Sir Claud Amory. Busy working on a new formula necessary for England's defence in the second world war, Amory suspects a member of his household of espionage. Of course, by the time Poirot and sidekick Hastings arrive at the scientist's country house, he is mysteriously dead. Amory himself turns out to have been not so nice, and his family, regardless of his scientific efforts, is pretty pleased with the new state of affairs. Still, Poirot manages both to save the more amiable members of the household from themselves and to protect the secrets of the British Empire. The novel is warmly evocative of another time and place and a welcome reminder of vintage Christie. --K.A. Crouch

Review:

‘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

‘Reads like authentic, vintage Christie. I feel sure Agatha would be proud to have written it’
Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie’s grandson

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 031219241X
• ISBN 13: 9780312192419
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 221