Book Review: Black Coffee

Black Coffee

Hercule Poirot receives a distress call from acclaimed scientist Sir Claud Amory, who after having come up with a secret formula for a dangerous explosive, fears that one of his family members may be looking for an opportunity to steal his latest discovery. Unfortunately it's a little too late by the time Poirot and his chum Hastings arrive at the scene, for Sir Claud is found dead from poisoning (it being present in his cup of black coffee, hence the title) and his secret formula declared missing. In a house filled with relatives and mysterious guests, it will be up to Poirot to exercise his little grey cells to unravel the whole mystery.

Adapted from Agatha Christie's play of the same name, Charles Osborne's novelization of Black Coffee is your regular closed-door whodunit, but even with the famous Belgian P. I. around, the story reveals the guilty party too early in the narrative (more a limitation of the play), thus spoiling the surprise denouement normally associated with her works. Poirot is his usual pompous self, and with the help of Hastings' casual remark and Miss Caroline Amory's (Sir Chaud's sister) vital leads, his clever deductions are a result of Christie's competent plotting, which never for a moment gets tedious. Not one of her best mysteries, but she can never go wrong when it features Hercule Poirot, can she?