The Unexpected Guest: Novelisation

December 14,1999
The Unexpected Guest
Agatha Christie (Charles Osborne)

Apparently, Osborne – who may be a relative of Christie’s; I’m not sure – has been commissioned to put some of Christie’s most famous plays into novel form, and this is one of those, just recently released.

Although Osborne takes absolutely no individual license of his own and is almost annoyingly rote and mechanical in his delivery so as not to deviate one iota from Christie’s version of the story, I quite liked it – all the more for its often dry recitation of the play, action for action, word for word. It strips away the excess and gives a near-perfect visual of the mystery at its most pure. I can see the characters so clearly.

It’s the middle of show more the night in rural Scotland, and a man has wrecked his car on a dark, country road. He goes to the nearest house for help (a vintage Christie English country manor, of course!). When he gets there, he finds a man in a wheelchair, dead. Shot. Nearby stands a woman with a gun. It appears that a wife has just shot her handicapped husband. Although Michael (he of the wrecked car) doesn’t know the woman, he decides to help her cover up her crime since she believes she was driven to it out of frustration.

Of course, nothing – and I do mean NOTHING – is what it seems. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, another surprise comes careening around the corner.

I like it even more than some of Christie’s own novels, if truth be told. It was less complex, and that’s how I like it! Don’t want to have to work my brain too hard! I’ll definitely read it again, I think. Glad I got it in hardcover. show less

In the middle of a foggy country night, a stranger crashes his car into a ditch and stumbles into the drawing room of a nearby house seeking help - only to discover a murdered man in one corner of the dark room, his professed murderer in the other.

This scene launches The Unexpected Guest, a novelization of what was apparently a fairly successful stage play by Agatha Christie. Not sure how much Charles Osborne got for turning it into a novel but hope it wasn't much, because it isn't apparent that he's added much value. Characters pop in and out of doors just when they're wanted, there's no interaction that isn't directly related to the plot, and the whole thing is entirely dialog driven. You can practically read the set directions show more embedded in the connecting sentences, but if you're craving additional detail with respect to clothing, furniture, weather, or anything else visual, you're out of luck.

I suspect most people who saw this as a play guessed the murderer by the second act. Certainly anyone reading this adaptation won't be long fooled. Had this been intended for bookstores rather than the stage, I suspect Dame Agatha would have taken the time to add more characters, more entanglements, and a lot more red herrings. But it's a quick read, and you could argue that some of the charm arises from imagining yourself garbed in a dapper wool suit or glamorous evening dress, seated on a velvet-upholstered cushion in a be-gilded and be-marbled MCM theater as the curtain sweeps open and there's a collective gasp! as the lights gradually rise to reveal the sight of the late, unlamented Richard Warwick, lying slumped in his wheelchair with a decorous bullet hole through his skull. show less

Not a particularly challenging read - finshed in a day.

Obviously written as a stage play and has been 'novelised' by another author. As I read it, I could see the staging and imagine the set: drawing room with French Windows, garden just seen in the distance, characters wandering in and out of the set/room/plot. Interesting plot, but fairly easy to see where it was going. I think it's failings (if you can call them that) would not have been there had Agatha Christie adapted the play herself - the clues were too obviously signposted for a reader. (well for this reader anyway).

Suspect it works better as a play than a novel.

The Unexpected Guest is one of Christie’s plays that wasn’t first a book or short story. Even though it’s original, it still feels like Christie has recycled past plots to create this play. A stranded traveler arrives at a remote Welsh home to find a woman holding a gun while her husband sits in his wheelchair, dead from a gunshot to the head. Did the woman kill him as she freely admits to the stranger, or is she shielding another member of the household? I listened to a BBC radio performance, and I suspect that it was abridged to fit the allotted radio timeslot. I don’t feel a need to read the full version, even though I own it in an omnibus edition of Christie’s plays. Recommended only for Christie completists.

The Guest Who Walked into Murder
A review of the St. Martin's Paperback (September 15, 2000) of the St. Martin's Minotaur hardcover (October 1, 1999) by Charles Osborne adapted from the original Agatha Christie play [book:The Unexpected Guest|20708222] (1958).

This was an extra surprise delight as the play and the novel adaptation hadn't been on my radar previously. I found the paperback during my recent cat and house-sitting retreat in Peterborough, Ontario. It was among several others that I snapped up at the KnotaNew Book Store, all of which will go forward into my Complete Agatha Christie binge read project.

See photo at https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/651880480_35547794051485939_3...
Found at KnotaNew Books in show more Peterborough, Ontario in March 2026.

With some 50+ books or so left to go out of an estimated 130 total, I have been expecting that the lesser known works may not be as compelling as the better known novels. Such was not the case with The Unexpected Guest, which constantly keeps you guessing with its twists and reveals right up until the shocking conclusion.

The title character is Michael Starkwedder who leaves his ditched car in a snowstorm and goes to a nearby house for shelter. He discovers a murdered man with a newly widowed wife standing beside him holding the murder weapon. In a tour-de-force of empathy and chivalry, Starkwedder offers to help create an alibi and alternate suspect for the beleaguered wife who had been the subject of abuse and disparagement by the misanthropic husband.

As the police arrive to investigate, it is revealed that almost everyone else in the household had a reason to murder the deceased and Starkwedder's fictional alibi for the wife may not hold up under scrutiny. With an apparent romantic rival, a somewhat maddened younger brother, a cold-hearted mother, a blackmailing valet and other suspicious characters there is no lack of further suspects.

As with [book:Black Coffee|16352] (Hercule Poirot #7.5 - 1988), this posthumous novelization is another adaptation by Australian Charles Osborne from an earlier stage work by Agatha Christie. I reviewed the Black Coffee novel last year as Poirot on Stage.

Although this is a posthumous adaptation, I am going to count it against my Complete Agatha Christie binge goal, so I have 20 novels (if I include the 6 published under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott), 5 short story collections, 11.5* theatrical plays (+ several harder to find 1-act radio plays) and 1 autobiography left to go. If my count is wrong I'll adjust it as I get nearer to the end of my target.

Footnote
* I am counting Towards Zero stage play version #1 (1945) and Towards Zero stage play version #2 (1956) each as 1/2 of a play. show less

Best for:
Those looking for a quick read that challenges one to think about who the real culprit is.

In a nutshell:
Michael Starkwedder has run his car off the road and is looking for a phone to use. He finds a house, lets himself in, and sees a woman with a gun and a man dead.

Worth quoting:
N/A (I listened to this as an audio book)

Why I chose it:
I’ve enjoyed the films based on Christie’s writings, and so wanted to read one for myself.

Review:
Laura’s husband Richard is dead. He’s a wheelchair user, and has been shot through the head. When Michael comes through the window, he sees Laura holding the gun. After some conversation, he decides he’s going to help make sure that she doesn’t go down for this crime. Michael learns that show more Richard is not really a nice person, and suggests after getting some details of his life that they set up someone who may have been wronged by Richard in the past.

The police initially seem to buy this story, but interview the other members of the house - Richard’s mother, his valet, his nurse, and his half brother, who is developmentally delayed (and unfortunately referred to using the r-slur once.)

I thought I saw the various twists coming, and I sort of did, but there was more in store. I was initially quite annoyed with the ending as it seemed a bit too … convenient? Unimaginative? But I should have known to hold on for more.

What’s next for this book:
I know this is a play originally, and I think it would be an interesting one to see performed live. show less

Unexpected Redux
A review of the Concord Theatricals online eBook (January 22, 2013) based on the original Samuel French playscript (1958) which was later adapted by [author:Charles Osborne|5477352] into the novel [book:The Unexpected Guest|948072] (1999).

STARKWEDDER. But I'm through, do you hear! I'm through. I'm damned if I'm going to tell a pack of lies to save [REDACTED]'s skin.
(There is a pause. LAURA smiles calmly.)
LAURA. Oh, yes, you are! You'll have to! You can't back out now! You've told your story to the police. You can't change it.
STARKWEDDER. What?
LAURA. Whatever you know or think, you've got to stick to your story, you're an accessory after the fact - you said so yourself.
STARKWEDDER. (Dumbfounded) Well I'm damned! You

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little...

I actually read the posthumous novelization first and thought it was excellent. It follows the original play very closely so there weren't any surprises for me. The novel only allows for more outdoor action, especially the final police chase scene, but most everything else is exactly the same.

In brief, Michael Starkwedder stumbles upon an apparent murder scene when he comes to a house looking for assistance due to his car being stuck in a ditch. The newly widowed wife is holding the murder weapon in her hand and upon hearing her tale of domestic abuse he agrees to help cover up the murder for her. Little does he know that everyone else in the household also had a motive and he may be covering up for someone that he never intended to.

It was still clever and the final twist reveal was one of my favourite Christie endings 😉.

This feature-length play counts against my Complete Agatha Christie binge read goal, so I have 17 novels (including 4 remaining Westmacotts), 4 short story collections, 9.5 full-length theatrical plays, 7 shorter radio plays and 1 autobiography left to go.

Trivia and Links
As best as I know, the 9 and 1/2 remaining full length plays on my list are:
Black Coffee (1930).
The Secret of Chimneys (1931) [was a lost play not on my original list, it was rediscovered and finally performed in 2003].
The Stranger (1932).
Akhnaton (1937).
And Then There Were None (1939).
Murder on the Nile (1944).
Towards Zero (Version #1) (1945). (I am counting this as 1/2 play with Towards Zero Version #2 as the other 1/2)
Spider's Web (1954).
A Daughter's A Daughter (1956).
Fiddlers Three (1972).
In addition there are several full length plays that have been posthumously adapted from Agatha Christie novels by other people, but I am not counting them as part of the canon. For a complete listing see the works at Concord Theatricals listed under Agatha Christie.
The above list does not include the shorter one-act plays and/or radio plays. show less