Die Geschichte nervt mich. Der Fremder steigt um Mitternacht das Haus ein, ohne Einladung? Wer macht das? Unsinnig. Er sieht eine Leiche, aber Moment, auch eine sexy Frau! Statt die Polizei zu rufen, will er sich mit ihr unterhalten. Unsinnig! Dann entschließt er sich mit dem Mord zu verwickeln, ein Mord zwischen Fremden, der nichts mit ihm zu tun hat:

"Ich mache mich nachträglich zum Komplizen," antwortete er.
"Aber warum?", fragte Laura. "Warum?"
"Wohl aus dem einfachen Grund, weil Sie eine überaus attraktive Frau sind und mir der Gedanke nicht gefällt, dass Sie die besten Jahre Ihres Lebens hinter Gittern verbringen sollen."

Quatsch.

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This was originally written as a stage play. Charles Osborne adapted it to a novel, as he did for the original stage play “Black Coffee.”

On a foggy night, in the countryside of South Wales, Michael Starkwedder has sunk his car in a muddy ditch. Try as he might, he can’t get it out so heads to the nearest house.

The house is dark but he knocks on the French doors hoping someone will answer. When he pushes on the doors they swing open. He finds a man sitting in a wheelchair looking like he’s asleep. When Starkwedder touches the man’s shoulder, to see if he was awake, it turns out the man is dead. Starkwedder then notices an attractive woman standing on the other side of the room. She is holding a revolver.

It appears to be a decided case of murder, but Starkwedder thinks there is more to the case than initially appears. Instead of immediately calling the police, he asks questions and finds there are multiple suspects and multiple motives. It seems everyone had a reason to wish the man dead.

As Starkwedder learns more and more about the family members and their relationships with the murdered man, he also finds himself deeper and deeper involved. It is no longer a simple case of murder.

The whole story takes place in pretty much the one room the murder happened in, with various characters making their entrances and exits. There is a sketch of the set layout at the beginning for reference. At the end of the book is a write up about Christie’s plays and a short bio of Christie along with a bio of Osborne. All interesting reading if you’re a Christie fan. There is a snippet of “Spider’s Web,” another play that has been novelized.

There is a lot to be found in “The Unexpected Guest.” Not as much as in one of the Christie’s mysteries written as a novel, but enough to make it and enjoyable read. ( )

İlk okuduğum Agatha Christe romanı olan Ölüm Sessiz Geldi gibi bu kitapta bir malikane de geçiyor ve tüm karakterleri tanıyıp ondan sonra kimin cinayet işlediğini bulmaya çalışıyoruz. Bu kitabın Ölüm Sessiz Geldi'den farklı olarak Hercule Poirot gibi müthiş bir dedektif barındırmıyor ve olay polislerin gözünden değil de ev halkının gözünden anlatılıyor. ( )

This is a 1999 novelisation of an original Agatha Christie play first performed in 1958. It enjoyed considerable success, notching up 600 performances over the next 18 months, clearly dwarfed even then by the success of The Mousetrap, which had already been running 6 years, but a good record in its own right. This play is in fact very similar to the Mousetrap in its construction and atmosphere, and on the face of it, it's difficult to see why this did not run on and on like its more famous predecessor (whose 27,818th performance I watched two days ago). This novelisation is a very straightforward adaptation of the play, with no extra scenes or lines or characters, so it reads as a bit stilted and restricted in places, but it turns into a good read with the usual plethora of red herrings and twists. I'd watch a performance of it if it came round. ( )