The Unexpected Guest by
Agatha Christie
pbk out July 00
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
This book, like last year's Black Coffee, is a novelisation by Charles
Osborne of a successful stage play by Agatha Christie. Michael Starkwedder
is the eponymous guest. He arrives late one night at an old isolated house,
after his car has become stuck in a nearby ditch. When his initial call is
unanswered, he walks through the unlocked french windows - and discovers a
corpse. It turns out that the dead man is Richard Warwick, master of the
house and a man who made enemies easily. Richard's wife Laura claims to
have shot him and Starkwedder, learning something of the deceased's
character, assists Laura in organising a cover-up which points the finger
at the father of a child whom Warwick had killed in a car accident. The
plot thickens as it becomes apparent that Laura is only pretending to be
guilty and that she is shielding another member of the household.
The Unexpected Guest was a successful play and, as one would expect, the
plot holds up pretty well in this form. Osborne is a committed Christie
fan, and author of an admirable and recently revised book about her life
and work. However, this novelisation suffers from the same failing as its
predecessor. Quite simply, Osborne has not been bold enough. The stage
origins of the story are consistently evident, because he has not added
sufficient value, either in terms of characterisation or of plot
thickening, to the story in translating it into a different literary form.
The end result is pleasant light reading but must rank as a missed
opportunity.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
