Black Coffee

Pam Lambert

Coffee's retro flavor is the real deal. . . .for a gracious pick-me-up, it's just what the butler ordered.
— People

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Christie biographer Osborne's adaptation of the grande dame's 1930 play has been blessed by the Christie estate and heartily endorsed by her grandson Michael Prichard. It's a classic 'someone in this room is the murderer' tale set in 1934. Scientist Sir Claud Amory invites Hercule Poirot to his estate to collect a formula for a new atomic explosive. Prior to Poirot's arrival, Sir Claud discovers the formula is missing from his safe. He offers the thief one minute of darkness to return it but, when the lights come on again, Sir Claud is dead. That's when Poirot arrives on the scene and takes matters in hand. An empty vial of sleeping pills is discovered, and someone in the room at the time of Sir Claud's death was seen with the tablets. Was Sir Claud murdered by his son Richard, who is in deep debt? Or was it espionage involving Lucia, Richard's Italian wife with a mysterious past and a connection to guest Dr. Carelli? Perhaps Sir Claud's secretary, Edward Raynor, or the spinster sister Caroline is guilty. Poirot, with 'methods very much his own,' aided by Captain Hastings, is lively and stimulating, like a fine black coffee, in this welcome addition to the Christie canon.

Library Journal

Charles Osborne, a theater critic and Christie biographer, has transformed the author's 1930 three-act play into a novel. Christie's many fans will undoubtedly clamor for this 'new' Poirot adventure.

Arizona Daily Star

Great fun.

Indianapolis Star

A first-rate job.

London Sunday Telegraph

Lively and light-hearted.

Midwest Book Review

A brilliant rendition.

Pam Lambert

Coffee's retro flavor is the real deal. . . .for a gracious pick-me-up, it's just what the butler ordered. -- People

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Intricate, knockout plotting...A fast, entertaining read.

San Jose Mercury News

A bauble for Christie buffs.

The Wall Street Journal

Undeniably appealing.

Kirkus Reviews

A brand-new Agatha Christie novel based on material nearly 70 years old. Christie's biographer Osborne has adapted the legendary web-spinner's first play (1929) to novel length, exhuming Hercule Poirot and Captain Arthur Hastings (who, operating here as Poirot's sidekick but not his amanuensis, has precious little to do) and preserving the endearingly creaky conventions of Christie's whodunit recipe. Noted atomic scientist Sir Claud Amory, on the eve of dispatching his formula for a powerful new explosive to the Ministry of Defense, realizes that someone in his family circle has filched the formula from his safe. Asking Poirot, whom he has already invited to visit him, to move up his arrival time, Sir Claud does the gentlemanly thing by assembling the suspects, telling them what he has discovered, turning out the lights, and inviting the thief to return the formula. Predictably, Poirot and Hastings arrive at the height of this failed experiment, just in time to realize that the thief has not only declined to return the formula but has fatally poisoned Sir Claud. Of the suspects—the scientist's impecunious son and his Italian wife, Sir Claud's dry-eyed niece and her spinster aunt, his private secretary, and an unexpected house guest—Osborne obviously believes the less said the better; and the plot, lacking the conceptual brilliance of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None, is no more than pleasantly serviceable. Still, the country-house atmosphere is suitably genteel, and the story holds its own with Christie's undistinguished contemporaneous novels—The Mystery of the Blue Train, The Seven Dials Mystery, and The Murder atthe Vicarage.