Spider's Web by Agatha Christie

JetBlackDragonfly
Sep 3
2 min read

Of the three Agatha Christie stage plays novelized by Charles Osborne (Black Coffee 1930, The Unexpected Guest 1958), this has the most flair, seamlessly matching Christie's best work. This comedy thriller delivers murder, suspense, and a secret passage in the library—just what the reader hoped for.

Henry and Clarissa have rented a large manor house in the Kent countryside, which used to belong to an antiques dealer, servants and a gardener included. People still come by wanting to buy furniture - like the old desk with a secret compartment containing an old envelope with some autographs.

Theatrical Clarissa is prone to spinning fanciful tales that entertain her guests. What if she loved another man besides her husband? What if she murdered someone—would her friends help? Visiting are her guardian Sir Rowland, friend Hugo, and new friend Jeremy, who gives Clarissa the eye. Her husband Henry is high up in the foreign office, leaving his precocious twelve-year-old daughter Pippa with Clarissa. His ex-wife Miranda ran of with creepy Oscar Costello.

One night, when the servants are out and the boys dine at the club, Clarissa discovers Oliver Costello in her home, demanding that Pippa live with them full-time. Clarissa ejects him, but somehow he returns in the night—for she finds his dead body behind the couch! Somebody killed him—was it Pippa? The boys return and help hide the corpse in a secret passage in the library wall—when the police are suddenly at the door to investigate a murder! They all claim innocence to Inspector Lord and Constable Jones until the body falls out of the wall onto the floor! Investigations lead in different directions until Clarissa steps up with a bold lie, then the actual truth they don't believe, and now she is ready to weave one of her fantasies—that she is actually the murderer - of a body that has now disappeared!

A fun night of murder, police, drug addicts, invisible ink, a book of spells, too many gloves, secret writing, and antiques. Written in 1954, the starring role of Clarissa was commissioned by stage actress Margaret Lockwood, and it became Christie's second most successful play, running 744 performances. It was filmed in 1960 with Glynis Johns, and made for TV with Penelope Keith in 1982. Besides writing the longest-running play in history, The Mousetrap (opening in 1952), Christie adapted for the stage Death On The Nile in 1945, and Witness For The Prosecution in 1953. .

Novelized as if by Christie herself, this is recommended to fans of classic mystery!

2000 / Paperback / 234 pages