000			01798n a2200181 a 4500
001			029053
005			20231009192539.0
008			140811t19751975--------------000-u-eng-u
082	0		_aMYS CHR
100	1		_aChristie, Agatha _d(1890-1976)
245	1	0	_aThe Unexpected Guest
260			_aNew York _b: St. Martins Minotaur _c, 1999.
300			_a210 p. _c; 24 cm.
520			_aAs he did with Black Coffee (1998), Osborne has taken one of Christie's original play scripts and turned it into a (slight) novel. For those who can't see the play in production or who find a script dull or difficult reading, Osborne's adaptation may fill a need. But Osborne has added little flesh to the bones of the drama, which, with its single-room setting, absolutely retains the feel of a play merely masquerading as a novel rather than transformed into one. That's not all bad, as this novelization preserves the lightning-quick pace of the original. Christie's play had its premiere in 1958, yet remains undated by the passing years. When a stranger having car trouble at night on a lonely road enters a house through the French windows of its study, he finds an invalid who has been shot dead and a woman (his wife) standing nearby and holding a gun. Apparently on impulse, the stranger decides to help the woman hide her crime. Those two plus a small cast--the victim's mother; the victim's teenage half-brother; his housekeeper/secretary; and his male nurse--parade kaleidoscopically in and out of the study with two investigating police officers. Christie cleverly shifts suspicion and parcels out new facts and perspectives in marvelous fashion, proving ingeniously that the obvious isn't always obvious.
655		7	_aDetective and mystery stories, English
700	1		_aOsborne, Charles
942			_cMO
999			_c241646 _d241646