Review
Subtitled A 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. T [Read More...]
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October 1st, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Like a personal friend, our favorite authors have a voice we instinctively identify. We continue to read their books because we want to hear that voice again. Sadly, many of the voices we love are gone forever, and that includes Agatha Christie’s. I found Black Coffee made me sad; it contained all the elements of a Christie — the people, the place, the puzzle — but it just wasn’t right. I found myself mentally correcting the narrative to make it more “Christie-ish,” the way I remember her.
I won’t read The Unexpected Guest, just as I didn’t continue to read Robert Goldsborough’s game imitation of the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. Rex’s voice, too, is gone forever.
Whether or not you’ll enjoy this book depends on what you read a book for. If you find yourself reading phrases over a second time, savoring the way the author used precisely the right words to speak right to you, you won’t like this book. If you like a neat little puzzle, especially in the lightweight style of the drawing-room mysteries of the ’30s and ’40s, Black Coffee will satisfy you, though like others, I did wonder why the author chose to focus in on the murderer’s hand at that crucial moment. Mrs. Christie would be appalled.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:23 pm
This is the 1st book of the 3 Osborne adaptations of Agatha Christie plays into novel form. I think it’s the lowest of the 3 in quality. The 2nd was “The Unexpected Guest,” and the 3rd was “Spider’s Web.” All 3 read more like plays than novels–so if you are expecting the normal Christie novel, you may very well be disappointed. However, if you have read the novels, this is a nice addition to your list of Christie’s and a rare opportunity to envision her plays. True, the plays could just as easily have been bound and published. But, Osborne has apparently done little, if anything, to detract from the plays themselves. So, IMHO, he has done a service both to Christie and to the mystery reading public by publishing these works. As for the content, this particular work is rather straight-forward, lacking some of Christie’s usual twists and turns, cleverness, etc. It is the only one of the 3 plays that includes one of her 3 usual “detectives” (Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy & Tuppence). This play is a Poirot adventure, but it’s not anywhere near one of the best. It is, however, a Christie. If you’ve read all the others, it’s one more to read. So, do your best to enjoy what may be your final opportunity.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
What a daunting task it must be to adapt a play by Agatha Christie and be successful at it! Agatha Christie herself took to writing plays because she disliked the way one of her novels had been adapted for the stage. Charles Osborne, a Christie biographer and renowned theatre and opera expert, does a comendable job in this novelization of the play “Black Coffee”.
Hardly anything new is added to the story, except for a slight lengthening of the time frame and an early chapter to introduce Hercule Poirot. Osborne is true to the original text, using the lines Christie wrote as the dialogue between his characters, enhancing their conversations a little at certain places. The only other additions are seen through his descriptions, mostly taken from stage directions, but some creativity is granted in how characters say certain things and their physical descriptions.
For any Agatha Christie fan, it is a pleasure to have another of her ‘novels’ to read. Osborne tries very hard to match the rhythm and flow of Christie’s writing, and does well overall, with only a few patches that sound stilted. It is obvious that some other reviewers haven’t read the original Christie text to enjoy this story as it was originally meant to be enjoyed - performed on the stage, where secrets are not kept from the audience. But since copies of the play can be a little difficult to come by, Osborne’s adaptation is a close second in enjoyment.