The Unexpected Guest. By: Agatha Christie

Time spent reading: 3 hours 40 minutes.

Being a late comer to the literature table in terms of how late I started casual reading, I sometimes find it difficult to pick a book for reading. Agatha Christie a popular novelist and screenplay writer however was a name I had always heard of through references from popular culture and had heard praises from a lot of people who have read her stories. I have made it a point to read at least one book of all popular writers and experience their work firsthand. Make out for myself how I fell, the selection of this book therefore is my introduction to Agatha Christie.

‘Dhund by B.R Chopra in 1973 and the Marathi movie ‘Don Ghadicha Dav’ a Marathi movie is an adaptation of the play.

Short Summary

This is a play written by the great storyteller which was first performed on stage in 1958. What would have been the hustle about in the city on such an occasion I could hardly imagine.

A stranger named Micheal Starkwedder enters the house of a stranger through a window in his study only to find him dead in his wheelchair. In the corner of the room he sees a lovely young lady with a gun in her hand, claiming to be his wife and agreeing of killing him in self-defense. She introduces herself to the stranger as Laura. Micheal however refuses to believe that a man in his wheelchair could be of any threat, Laura admits she killed her husband in cold blood to avenge his ill temper and cruelty towards her. Micheal refuses to let Laura take the blame for the killing and quickly devises a ruse to misguide the Police. They decide to put the blame on ‘MacGregor’ a man whose son ‘Richard’ Laura’s husband had killed in a driving accident while driving drunk.

The plot thickens and further investigations reveal that ‘Laura’ was having an affair with Richard’s friend and in an act of a one-sided love affair. Laura is ready to take the blame for someone who does not love her back the same way. Without revealing the plot or the climax any further, I would add that the twist in the end would inspire even ‘M Night Shyamalan’ to consider re-writing some of his movie scripts.

My Review

“My understanding of any writing is that it need not be complicated to be brilliant, neither does it require multiple twists and layers in a story to make it interesting. The story is a true testimony to that idea. ‘Agatha’ presents to the audience with a simple scene ‘A dead body in a house and a woman with the murder weapon claiming to be the killer’. The subsequent events of the story move in a linear flow, facts are presented to the reader one after the other without rushing any of them. The questions Micheal asks, the answers given to them by Laura and the final story presented by him to the Police all follow a brilliant series of logical steps. The best underlying twist to the story is the pace at which it moves, giving the audiences enough time to form their own theories at the same time not giving them enough time to cross examine their theories stopping.

Staying true to the formula of great storyteller the narrative is precise, to the point and writing is detailed but not verbose. The supporting cast to the two main characters is in no way an afterthought, each character introduced to the audience has a rich backstory ad helps in taking the story forward. ‘Richard’s mother, Laura’s love interest and indeed ‘MacGreagor’ play a vital part in the whole story.

Though a crime was committed that day in the house where the stranger walks in, the real crime was the theories that I made about the murder while reading it. I thought I had a winning theory but, in the end,, it turned out to be wrong. Here is to you having the same Experience.