Reviews - The Unexpected Guest

471 reviews for:

The Unexpected Guest

Charles Osborne

3.79 AVERAGE

crazygoangirl's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious slow-paced

kateelam's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This is a fun novelization of Agatha Christie's play by the same title. I enjoyed the fast pace of this story, which, like many of Christie's other stories, takes place over a short span of 24 hours. I found the final twist of this mystery to be rather predictable, but the twists in between still made for a good time.

Unfortunately I wasn't crazy about one character's stereotypical depiction and, like with any of her works, you're reminded of the time they were written in but this book in particular utilized this person for a plot device I didn't appreciate.

Content Warnings

flyingfox02's review against another edition

4.0

So many plot twists in such a short story.

shawna_reads's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

"Men and women don't react in the same way. What it comes down to is this. Men are the more sensitive sex. Women are tough. Men can't take murder in their stride. Women apparently can. The fact is, if a man's committed a murder for a woman, it probably enhances his value in her eyes. A man feels differently."

Having gotten his car stuck in a ditch, a stranger heads to the country manor nearby to find a murdered man and his wife standing over him with a gun. The unexpected guest decides to help her come up with an elaborate story to shift the blame to an intruder.

The first chapter literally opens up to the description above and created many questions in my head. Why was this man murdered? Why does the unexpected guest want to help an unknown woman? Did this woman actually kill her husband? This is where the guest walks through what could have happened to create a believable alibi, but then drama occurs as more characters are introduced - the family, the butler, the mayor whom the wife is having an affair, and of course, the police.

By all means, this isn't an amazing book as it is bland and the characters are annoying, but it makes for a fun, quick read. Each character has a motive for murdering their wealthy, arrogant family member, but there is twist after twist after twist causing the reader to change their mind several times on who the killer is. This is your typical, cozy whodunnit mystery.

wandererzarina's review against another edition

4.0

tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

swethamaryann's review against another edition

3.0

Not one of my favourites from the queen of crime fiction. The endless loop and loop of ahifting blame had me tired. And the reason given by a total stranger to “help” the beautiful dame in distress “because she was a beautiful woman”. The shadow of doubt moves from one person to another throughout the book, but what bothered me from the start was why was a stranger mixed in the midst of a murder at all.