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Narrated by:
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John Moffatt
About this listen
Adapted from the play by Charles Osborne.
Sir Claud Amory has discovered the formula for a new powerful explosive, which is stolen by one of the large household of relatives and friends.
Locking everyone in the library, Sir Claud switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula on the table, no questions asked.
When the lights come on, however, he is dead, and Hercule Poirot – with assistance from Hastings and Inspector Japp – has to unravel a tangle of family feuds, old flames and suspicious foreigners to find the killer and prevent a global catastrophe.
©1998 Agatha Christie Limited, a Chorion Company. All rights reserved. Adapted as a novel by Charles Osborne. Charles Osborne asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work (P)1998 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London, UKListeners also enjoyed...
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The Man in the Brown Suit (AmazonClassics Edition)
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Performance
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The Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection. Suspicion naturally falls on the old man's young widow, fifty years his junior. But the murderer has reckoned without the tenacity of Charles Hayward, fiancé of the late millionaire's granddaughter.
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Wicked Spirits: Mysteries, Spine Chillers and Lost Tales of the Supernatural
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This follow-up volume to the bestselling Ghosts from the Library resurrects forgotten tales of the supernatural by some of the most accomplished mystery authors of all time. Close the windows. Draw the curtains. Just don’t let the lights go out…
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Marple: Twelve New Mysteries
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Hit or miss Marple
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The Mysterious Mr. Quin
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It had been a typical New Year's Eve party. But as midnight approaches, Mr. Satterthwaite - a keen observer of human nature - senses that the real drama of the evening is yet to unfold. And so it proves when a mysterious stranger knocks on the door. Who is this Mr. Quin? Mr. Satterthwaite's new friend is an enigma. He seems to appear and disappear almost like a trick of the light. In fact, the only consistent thing about him is that his presence is always an omen - sometimes good, but sometimes deadly....
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After I caught on! Or did I?
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The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Dramatised)
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- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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This is the very first Poirot/Hastings story. Set in 1916, we meet Captain Hastings as he is invalided out of the Great War and goes to convalesce at Styles Court, the family home of his great friend, John Cavendish. By an extraordinary coincidence, billeted in the village is a brilliant little retired detective with an egg-shaped head, who made a considerable impression on the Captain when he was in Belgium. Styles is not a happy household and in the blistering summer heat, tensions mount.
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Most Entertaining!
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'Crooked House' & 'Endless Night'
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Two standalone novels from the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie. From the sprawling Leonide family to dark moors, no one can spin a mystery quite like she can. In Crooked House, the Leonides are one big happy family living in a sprawling, ramshackle mansion. That is until the head of the household, Aristide, is murdered with a fatal barbiturate injection....
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Typical VS Unexpected
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Critic reviews
"Christie biographer Osborne's adaptation of the grande dame's 1930 play has been blessed by the Christie estate and heartily endorsed by her grandson Michael Prichard. It's a classic 'someone in this room is the murderer' tale set in 1934." (Publishers Weekly)
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Story
Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison.
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I like cozy
- By Sheryl on 05-21-12
By: Charles Finch
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Bulldog Drummond
- By: Sapper
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Demobilised officer, finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; excitement essential. When Captain Hugh Drummond, DSO, MC placed that advertisement, he was looking for adventure. What he finds is an international plot headed by the greatest criminal mastermind in the world.
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Fantastic Narration
- By nooch85 on 07-21-18
By: Sapper
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Masked Ball at Broxley Manor
- A Royal Spyness Novella
- By: Rhys Bowen
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 1 hr and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
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Fun, light prequel
- By CMMV on 01-01-15
By: Rhys Bowen
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Piccadilly Jim
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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He was a gossip columnist’s dream. Piccadilly Jim’s life was a collage of broken promises and drunken brawls. And his straight-laced Victorian aunt was not amused. So, she decided to reform him. Unfortunately, her reform project started at a time when Jim had fallen in love and had already decided to reform himself. Thus, life became complicated. Jim pretends to be himself - a beautiful display of Wodehousean logic; hilarious indeed!
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Glad to Finally Have Frederick Davidson’s Version
- By John on 11-09-22
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Railway Detective
- The Railway Detective, Book 1
- By: Edward Marston
- Narrated by: Peter Walters
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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London, 1851. With the opening of the Great Exhibition at hand, interest in mounting in the engineering triumphs of the railways, but not everyone feels like celebrating. In an audacious attack, the London to Birmingham mail train is robbed and derailed, causing many casualties. Planned with military precision, this crime proves a challenge to Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck who fights to untangle a web of murder, blackmail and destruction.
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Just okay
- By Kindle Customer on 10-10-24
By: Edward Marston
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Death in Kenya
- By: M. M. Kaye
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When Victoria Caryll is offered a position at Flamingo, her aunt's family estate in Kenya's Rift Valley, she accepts - knowing full well that the move will give her a chance to see Eden DeBrett once again, the man she was previously engaged to. But she doesn't realize that coming to her aunt's home will introduce her to an unstable region still recovering from the bloody Mau Mau revolt, and to a household thrown into grief by a recent murder.
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Brilliantly written suspense novel !
- By Kathi on 03-17-13
By: M. M. Kaye
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Lord Peter Wimsey: Novels 1-3
- By: Dorothy L. Sayers
- Narrated by: Graham Scott
- Length: 26 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The first three mysteries for Dorothy L. Sayers' aristocratic sleuth: first, a body is discovered in a Battersea bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez, on the same night that financier Sir Reuben Levy disappears from his Park Lane home. Then, Wimsey returns to England when his brother, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murdering the fiance of their sister, Lady Mary, and a trial in the House of Lords looms; and finally, an overheard conversation in a restaurant begins an investigation of the strangely premature death of wealthy and terminally ill old lady Miss Agatha Dawson.
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Love Lord Peter
- By Mav's mom on 10-16-24
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A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
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Classic Upper Crust Mystery
- By Laurence G. Byrne on 02-25-16
By: Ngaio Marsh
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The Secrets of Wishtide
- By: Kate Saunders
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Mrs. Laetitia Rodd, aged 52, is the widow of an archdeacon who makes her living as a highly discreet private investigator. Her brother, Frederick Tyson, is a criminal barrister living in nearby Highgate with his wife and 10 children. Frederick finds the cases, and Laetitia solves them using her arch intelligence and her immaculate cover as an unsuspecting widow. When a case arises involving the son of the highly connected Sir James Calderstone, Laetitia sets off for Lincolnshire undercover as the family's new governess.
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Thoroughly enjoyable
- By Episteme on 12-31-16
By: Kate Saunders
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Something Fresh
- By: P. G. Wodehouse
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The one thing that could be expected to disturb the peace of life at Blandings is the incursion of imposters. Blandings has imposters like other houses have mice. On this occasion there are two of them--both intent on a dangerous enterprise.
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So That's Where "Upstairs, Downstairs" Came From!
- By Beverly on 01-26-12
By: P. G. Wodehouse
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The Lost Stories of Sherlock Holmes by Dr John Watson
- By: Tony Reynolds
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The recent death of one of the descendants of Dr. Watson has brought to light his personal papers. These include a number of stories that Dr. Watson suppressed at the time for various reasons. As all involved are long dead, the inheritor has agreed to the publication of a set of eight of the most interesting adventures.
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Easy listening stories. Just what I was looking for.
- By MusiqueMusic on 12-16-24
By: Tony Reynolds
What listeners say about Black Coffee
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Stevo
- 08-27-14
Lukewarm Coffee!
If you’ve listened to books by Agatha Christie and Charles Osborne before, how does this one compare?
'Black Coffee' has some novelty value as a Hercule Poirot mystery, being a story that not every Hercule Poirot fan would be familiar with. However, for me this story is not as good as Agatha Christie's own Hercule Poirot novels.
Three of Agatha Christie's stage plays have been novelised by Charles Osborne so far (the other two being 'The Unexpected Guest' and 'Spider's Web') and of those three adaptations, 'Black Coffee' is my least favourite book. It's not actually a bad story, it's just that Charles Osborne's writing style differs from Agatha Christie's.
What about John Moffatt’s performance did you like?
This is a well narrated audiobook. John Moffatt does a good Hercule Poirot, of course, having played the role in the majority of the Hercule Poirot radio dramatisations produced by the BBC.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Not really!
Listening to Black Coffee I came to the conclusion that there was a reason that it was never adapted in to a novel by Agatha Christie herself... it was a meant to be performed on a stage and not read as a novel. Also, Agatha Christie had used part of the actual solution in one of her novels!
Any additional comments?
This isn't a proper Agatha Christie book. 'Black Coffee' was originally a play that has been adapted in to a novel... and it shows. Although for Agatha Christie fans this is an additional Hercule Poirot/Captain Hastings adventure that can just be enjoyed for what it is. A mildly entertaining mystery with a simple plot, but not classic Poirot by any means.
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- Symonne
- 02-01-18
Everything you could ask for
Everything you could ask for in a reading of this lovely Agatha Christie story. Another pairing of Poirot and his loyal friend Captain Hastings.
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- Rev. Kate
- 07-09-16
Fabulous!
I only wish those idiot Directors of the David Suchet Christie novels would just produce the real stories, instead of thinking they are better than Agatha, and creating those absurd movies. She is the Queen of crime fiction and Suchet would be so awesome portraying the little detective in the real stories she made internationally famous!
As always, a fabulous story!
Exceptionally written.
Excellently performed by John Moffatt.
Great entertainment!
Enjoy it!
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- Huifen
- 11-25-19
nothing new - do not waste your time on this
Without giving anything away, suffice to say that this was a draggy, poorly written mish mash of various Poirot stories. And the dialogue had the audacity to refer to the plot which this story plagrised!!! Could see the solution miles away.
Only the beautiful voice acting of John Moffatt saved the day.
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