Reprinted for the first time in almost 90 years, this original
novelisation of the very first Agatha Christie film is a unique record
of the Queen of Crime's movie debut and a bold attempt to turn one of
her favourite short stories into a thrilling silent movie.
Who poisoned the cruel and sinister Professor Appleby? Derek Capel, his
neighbour, in love with the Professor's wife, Eleanor? Vera, the
house-parlourmaid, Appleby's mistress? Or was it Eleanor Appleby
herself? All three could be reasonably suspected of a motive which would
prompt them to poison the most hateful villain who ever crossed the
pages of fiction . . .
The first ever Agatha Christie film was a 1928 black and white silent
movie, loosely based on her first 'Harley Quin' story. Although no
script or print of the film survives, this rare novelisation from the
same year is a unique record of Christie's first association with the
motion picture industry - now in its remarkable tenth decade with the
release of Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express.
This new Detective Club edition includes an introduction by film and
television historian Mark Aldridge, author of the authoritative Agatha
Christie On Screen (2016), who reveals why the film's harshest critic
was Agatha Christie herself.