Black Coffee by Agatha Christie

Sir Claud Amory’s revolutionary new formula for a powerful explosive is stolen. Locking his house-guests in the library, Sir Claud switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula, no questions asked. When the lights come on, he is dead, and Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings have to unravel a tangle of family feuds, old flames and suspicious foreigners to find the killer and prevent a global catastrophe.

The truth is never horrible, only interesting.
Agatha Christie, Black Coffee

More about this story

Adapted from Agatha Christie’s play of the same title, Black Coffee was novelised by Charles Osborne and published in 1998. Black Coffee was Agatha Christie’s first play script; originally performed in 1930 and made into a now rarely-seen film the following year.

A lively and light-hearted read which will give pleasure to all those who have long wished that there was just one more Christie to devour.
Sunday Telegraph

Did you know?

On 15th July 2012 David Suchet and friends performed a staged reading of Black Coffee at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Naturally David Suchet played Poirot, with George Layton as Inspector Japp and David Yelland as Captain Arthur Hastings.