The Mousetrap & Other Plays [B1819]

1978 HCDJ Book Club Edition, clean with just minor wear and a faded spine (see photo). From the jacket flap: "During her lifetime, Agatha Christie (1890-1976) steadfastly refused to publish her plays. Now-after much arduous negotiation-readers can delight in this first volume of eight brilliant stage thrillers from the Grande Dame of suspense." Agatha Christie created magnificent works of suspense for the theater, and eight of her riveting stage dramas are collected in The Mousetrap and Other Plays-including the title piece, the longest running play in history, still a smash hit in London's West End after 60 years! A collection of classic theatrical whodunnits includes: And Then There Were None, Appointment with Death, The Hollow, The Mousetrap, Witness for the Prosecution, Towards Zero, Verdict, and Go Back for Murder. On an isolated island, ten people have been brought together to be killed off. An evil old woman has a rendezvous with death in the desert heat of Jerusalem. A scheming wife testifies against her husband in a shocking murder trial. And a homicidal maniac terrorizes a group of snowbound guests to the refrain of 'Three Blind Mice.' This collection of eight works proves that Agatha Christie's plays are as compulsive as her novels, with their colorful characters and ingenious plots providing yet more evidence of her mastery of the detective thriller.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "As an avid reader of Agatha Christie's work, it felt only fitting to read her world-renowned play The Mousetrap. I'll begin by saying it is a quick read. Christie's writing style is instantly recognizable, even in a play format, with sharp dialogue and a familiar sense of suspense. However, unlike much of her other work, I felt the backstories of the characters were not as fully developed. This may simply be a limitation of the play format. Overall, the story remained engaging throughout and an enjoyable, easy read, particularly for fans of Christie looking to explore her work beyond novels."; "Interesting read once you get into reading a play rather than prose. Some were written as plays and some adapted from stories, where she actually wrote the play versions herself and did a fair bit of tinkering. One of the other interesting things about these plays is that the original cast lists were included."; "I've read this one a few times, having directed two of the plays in it, myself and seeing productions of two more. It's been over a decade since I last looked through it though. In some ways, perhaps logically, the plays that I staged myself were most familiar to me. Similarly, the least familiar of the lot was "Verdict," the only one of these not based on an earlier novel or story. The great thing Christie does is savagely adapt prose fiction to stage drama. She cuts Poirot completely. She even changes at least one of the murderers. It's all great fun. At the same time so many of the clichés of popular drama are obvious, the general dismissal of women, the mistrust of foreigners, and of course, the fact that everybody smokes. Much of that has not aged well . ."