“…I am afraid. There are shadows… shadows everywhere” (20-21).
Likely written between 1928-1929 as a result of general dissatisfaction with Alibi, a 1928 stage adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Michael Morton, Agatha Christie sought to try her own hand at writing a Hercule Poirot tale for the stage. When she finished the draft of her new play in 1929, her agent read it and promptly advised against submitting the script because, in his opinion, it was not good enough. However, a friend later suggested Christie should ignore her agent and submit her play for consideration on the stage anyway. The result was Black Coffee, a play which was first performed at the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage, London before officially opening the following year in West End at the St. Martin’s Theatre (where Christie’s play The Mousetrap would later run continuously from 1952 onward). Years later, an actor who played the role of Dr. Carelli in Black Coffee, Charles Osborne, approached the company managing Christie’s works, Agatha Christie Ltd, about adapting the play into a novel. This is the version of the story I read.
It is May 1934. Poirot is eating his breakfast of brioche and hot chocolate inside his flat at the Whitehall mansions with his valet George nearby (George is described as a fount of knowledge about the English aristocracy). Poirot is using his mail opener paper-knife (a gift from Captain Hastings) as he reads the morning news that Hitler has turned the German courts into branches of the Nazi party, the Fascists have seized power in Bulgaria, and 42 miners have recently died in an accident near Mons in Poirot’s home country of Belgium. At this point, Poirot is ostensibly retired “…nothing of professional interest had presented itself to Poirot for several months. Were there no imaginative crimes and criminals any more? Was it all violence and brutality, the kind of sordid murder or robbery which it was beneath his, Poirot’s, dignity to investigate?” (2). Poirot’s old compatriot Captain Hastings has returned with his wife to their ranch in the Argentine but at present, he is in London on business.
George mentions to Poirot a phone call he received the night before while Poirot was out at the theatre with Mrs. Oliver. The call was from a middle-aged widower named Sir Claud Amory, a famous scientist “working on a formula to bombard the atom,” but when Sir Claud phones again, he speaks with Poirot and shares a growing concern. He has reason to suspect that a member of his household is attempting to steal his prized formula –a formula which could change the future trajectory of nuclear warfare due his research of a substance called Amorite (notably, this prescient story was written and performed prior to the rise of the nuclear bomb). Sir Claud invites Poirot down to his home “Abbot’s Cleve” for the weekend under the promise that Poirot will deliver his written formula back to the Ministry of Defence in London –a simple trip from Surrey to Whitehall. Thus, in need of a change of scenery, Poirot phones up Hastings and summons him away from business concerns in London so they can travel together to Surrey (and as a point of literary continuity, their last case was “The Big Four” criminal syndicate from The Big Four).
Sir Claud’s large house “Abbot’s Cleve” is a towering Victorian mansion that sits on the edge of an overgrown village called Market Cleve, about twenty-five miles southeast of London. Shortly before Poirot and Hastings arrive, Sir Claud discovers that his formula has been stolen out of his safe. He then arranges a dramatic after-dinner confrontation over coffee with all of his guests. He locks them all inside his library (with the help of his sister Caroline), and instructs the mysterious thief to place the stolen formula inside its envelope on the table next to Sir Claud. Then, at the stroke of nine, the lights go out and there is a mad scramble in the dark –the hushed sound of gasping, a falling chair, a jingling sound like keys, and the tearing of someone’s dress. After a minute, the lights come back on and the room is shocked to find the formula envelope seated beside Sir Claud –but he has mysteriously died in his chair!
But who has killed Sir Claud? And how? Poirot and Hastings arrive only moments too late, but they decide to solve the case anyway (they are later joined by the local medical practitioner Dr. Kenneth Graham as well as the inimitable Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard and his young constable named Johnson). As an aside, when Japp arrives on the scene, he reminisces with Poirot about the Abercrombie forgery case in Brussels (a case Japp had previously referenced in The Mysterious Affair at Styles), and “Baron” Altura in Antwerp (also previously referenced in The Mysterious Affair at Styles), as well as the affair at styles itself and a case from two years earlier, the case of an Italian nobleman in London (I believe this is a reference to “The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman” from Christie’s Poirot Investigates short story collection). Later, Poirot compares the present case of Sir Claud to the dilemma in Lord Edgware Dies. Anyway –I found myself charmed by these little nods to other books in the series.
At any rate, the suspects in Sir Claud’s murder include:
- Tredwell: Sir Claud’s butler who is “a tall, lugubrious-looking individual with an impeccably correct manner.”
- Barbara Amory: Sir Claud’s 21-year-old niece (who unsurprisingly captures the fancy of Hastings).
- Dr. Carelli: a 40-year-old Italian house guest who is “dark and swarthy” and who has a mysterious connection to Sir Claud’s daughter-in-law Lucia.
- Richard Amory: Barbara’s cousin and the only son of Sir Claud. Richard has notably fallen into debt and he seems to be somewhat suspicious of his wife.
- Lucia Amory: Richard Amory’s 25-year-old wife. She mysteriously knows Dr. Carelli and seems to be anxious by his presence at the house. She initially met her husband Richard last November on the lakes in Italy, they were quickly married within a week. She is described as an orphan, though she says she had a diamond necklace stolen a couple months back during an incident in which Richard quarreled with his father over his debts.
- Caroline Amory: Sir Claud’s sister who has managed the house since his wife died some years earlier.
- Edward Raynor: Sir Claud’s secretary.
As this simple but nevertheless delightful mystery unfolds, Poirot pieces together the clues –such as a duplicate key, Raynor’s turned over chair in the library, a box of poisons, the formula envelope (which is actually empty), Sir Claud’s death by a powerful vegetable alkaloid called hyoscine (it was slipped into his coffee), and the suspicious behavior of Lucia and Richard who both eagerly wish to dismiss Poirot.
“Let us just say that, as the magicians on the stage like to assure us, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye” (71).
Solution (Spoilers Ahead)
CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS
The first breakthrough in the case comes when Lucia’s true identity is surprisingly exposed. She is actually the daughter of Selma Goetz, a notorious spy who once operated under the name of The Baronne de Giers in Genoa as one of her aliases. However, Lucia is embarrassed by her mother’s past and she has been secretly paying off Dr. Carelli for his silence (in other words, he has been blackmailing her) because the The Amorys are a proud family and they would likely disown Lucia if her identity became publicly known. It was actually Dr. Carelli who took Lucia’s necklace months earlier, and also Dr. Carelli who wanted Lucia to steal her father-in-law’s formula, but when the lights had gone out in the library Lucia tossed the key across the room and put the hyoscine in her own coffee, hoping to end her own life.
But believing his wife has killed Sir Claud, Richard makes a failed attempt at confessing to the crime. However, Poirot is always one step ahead. After interrogating all the characters, the true killer is later dramatically revealed to be Sir Claud’s secretary Edward Raynor who confesses privately when Poirot confronts him in the library. When the lights had initially gone out in the library, Raynor was heard tearing the formula and concealing it in a vase on the mantelpiece. Hey was the key figure in the dark and he had previously slipped poison into Sir Claud’s coffee. But Raynor’s last surprise in the novel is that he has slipped some of the same poison into Poirot’s whiskey. Poirot grows wide-eyes and collapses, shutting his eyes in a chair, but this is merely a performance as Poirot secretly swapped out his drink with Hastings for a clean cup of whiskey. This spells the end for Raynor. As Raynor is led away by Inspector Japp, he admits to stealing the formula in the hopes of selling it for top dollar.
Thus, Poirot has once again solved another great mystery –no thanks to Hastings who nearly ruined it at one point by stepping outside the library (against Poirot’s clear instructions) at the behest of Barbara. Some things never change! One day, I’d love to see a stage performance of this charming play.
“Everywhere there should be neatness and order, especially in the little grey cells of the brain” (80).
Christie, Agatha. Black Coffee. Adapted as a novel by Charles Osborne. Harper Collins Publishers, 1998 (paperback edition 2017, adapted from Agatha Christie’s play which was initially produced in 1930). With a foreword by Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew Prichard.