Book Club

Christie's Plays

Agatha Christie wrote over a dozen plays, the most famous of which is The Mousetrap - the longest running play in the world. Here you can discuss each play in detail.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

Go back for Murder

Moderator1 21 Sep 09 at 9:26 a.m. GMT

Carla Crale has just turned twenty-one, and has just found out that the mother she thought died in an accident actually died in prison – convicted for murdering Carla’s father. Carla is convinced her mother was innocent and asks solicitor Justin Fogg to help her find the truth. Can bringing together all the people who were in attendance on the fateful day sixteen years before, bring the real killer to light?

This was another adaptation Christie made of a novel (Five Little Pigs) where Poirot was omitted.  Does the play work as well though, without him?  Is Justin Fogg perhaps a little to light a character to convince in a sleuth role?  This was certainly not one of Christie’s more successful plays and is rarely revived but are there ways she could have improved it?

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3 replies

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GKCfan 24 Sep 09 at 2:42 a.m. GMT

Personally, I think that the most interesting twist to the play is that the parts of Carla and Caroline are played by the same actress.  I think that the fact that most of the actors play two versions of themselves (present-day and sixteen years previously) makes for some excellent acting opportunities.  I do think that Fogg doesn't have enough uniqueness or development to really work in such a pivotal role.  I realize that Carla's romance is treated the way it is in order to reach the "happy" ending, but that takes away from the fact that one of Carla's main concerns in wishing to prove her mother's innocence is that she's concerned about her own upcoming mariage.   I also think that the closing scene is lacking due to the absence of a real confrontation scene between the detective and the killer, and Carla's airy justification for letting the killer go free just rings false to me.

Frndorfoe 30 Sep 09 at 8:19 a.m. GMT

This play was an okay one for me. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't that good either. I didn't like the fact that in the end the killer was just let go scot-free. I would have liked to see her get punished.

akankshaluvsbooks 11 Jan 11 at 10:07 a.m. GMT

This play is definitely not a usual Agatha Christie Play in the sense that the perpetrator goes unpunished but i would like to add that for me the it was one of the best plays because of the little love story of Justin and Carla in the play. Its was a sweet and cute love story where the hero go out of his way to help the girl who has stirred the emotions of his long dormant heart.