Rating: 
Summary: Weak Coffee --The Watered Down Version of Hercule Poirot
Review: Dame Agatha took her plays a bit differently than her novels. Based on The Mousetrap and Black Coffee, her plots were simpler, her character development lighter, and her misdirection more obvious. I assume that is because she assumed a different audience for the plays than for the novels. Nevertheless, the plot is quite elegant in its simplicity and resolution. It is well within the classic English drawing room mystery genre. A secret formula disappears from a safe. The scientist demands its return. He turns the lights off to allow for an anonymous resolution. When the lights come on, he is dead by poison. Hercule Poirot and Hastings arrive in the middle of the incident. Poirot unravels the murder and catches the murderer. The best part of the plot is that one of my favorite techniques is used for the key clue (hint: the same kind of one is in The Hound of the Baskervilles). My main disappointment was that Poirot does not really flourish as Poirot. He seems watered down, like weakly brewed black coffee. It is as though an imposter is playing his role. The full edge of the arrogance and self-centeredness are not quite there. A positive side of the novel is that it keeps many of its dramatic elements. You can almost see the action unfolding before your eyes in the same room, as you would in the theater. If you have read all of the other Agatha Christie novels, then you definitely should read this one. If you have not yet read A Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Secret of Chimneys, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Seven Dials Mystery, The Murder in the Vicarage, Murder on the Orient Express, The A B C Murders, Death on the Nile, The Regatta Mystery, N or M?, Death Comes in the End, Witness for the Prosecution, And Then There Were None, or Postern of Fate, I suggest you start with these. I hope you grow to find Agatha Christie's mysteries as irresistible in their clear thinking as I do.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderfully Entertaining!
Review: How great is Agatha Christie? I mean, who else can keep you on your toes for so long? She is a master at story telling, although with this particular novel she can not take all the credit. Charles Osborne creates a superb novel based on a screenplay that Christie had originaly completed who knows when, I know it was before her death sometime (obviously right?). i thouroughly enjoyed this novel, simple, easy to read and very charismatic, one of the finer 'light' mystery novels of the 90's. Four-out-of-Five.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh!
Review: I have read many, many Agatha Christie novels, and this one has been just about my least favorite. Usually, at the end of one of her books, I'll be hanging on to every word. This time, when the murderer was revealed, I had one thought; "Oh, that's nice." I also found that "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is almost identical in several points. However, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" was wonderfully written with a clever scheme behind the crime. If you must read a book about poisoned coffee cups, I highly reccommend you pass this one up and read that one instead.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: It annoys me that Agatha Christie's name is in huge letters on the cover. This is not Agatha Christie, and Osborne does not measure up. Perhaps this is harsh and the book could have stood on its own, but as it is, the book is marketed with Christie's name. In such a context it is a disappointment, almost inevitably.
Rating:
Summary: Probably better as a play.
Review: Although the basic Christie elements are here, this book is one of her weakest efforts. From all the staginess of the sparse descriptions, it's clear that this was originally a play, and that it probably should have remained a play. Granted that characterizations have rarely been one of Christie's strong points, the stock figures here are so two-dimensional that they rarely elicit any interest at all. Unfortunately, there is little here even of Christie's wonderful ability to surprise us with"~ clever twists and suspenseful dialog.
Rating:
Summary: Good,not great
Review: This book was good.It had a good set of Characters.It was very light and fast paced.The Book didnt have a complicated ending.The book just lacked some of the classic Christie writing.So I am inquiring that it is not a classic but still good.
Rating:
Summary: I give it 3 stars, and still feel I'm too generous.
Review: Well, let's be brief. This novel was first written as a play, and even though Mr. Osborne, I'm sure, did his best to make it look like a novel, it still has the basic characteristics of a play. There is very little description and too much dialogue. The sets are limited to a single room, just as in a play. My impression is that Mr. Osborne tried to remain as close as possible to Agatha Christie's original play. Yet he could have been a little more imaginative, and I'm sure it only could have made the book more interesting to read. As for the plot (without giving it away), let's just say that the mystery was easy to solve. To say the least, part of the solution had already been used by Agatha Christie in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles." Therefore, the publication of "Black Coffee" as a novel cannot be really justified, since this second-rate Christie material, for the most part, had already been used before in other Christie novels. Making a novel out of "Black Coffee" is useless. It's just the same as if someone wanted to write a novel version of Christie's play "Alibi," when the latter is already based on her novel "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".
Rating:
Summary: A very good Book
Review: If you like Agatha Christie books you will like Black Coffee. This book is new and interesting. It features Hercule Poirot and his partner Captain Hastings.
Rating:
Summary: Don't read this review unless you've already read book
Review: Like most people here I was excited to find a "new" Christie. But what a disappointment, from the moment that the fireplace spills were mentioned, I knew that a hidden document was there. Also on pages 49-50....the murderer slips the tablets into the coffee... from that moment on I knew who the murderer was. I understand that this was adapted from the play but this line while importaint to someone acting this part, was unnessary in the novel form. Very dry characters, and no clever batter between Hastings and Poriot. Besides Hastings would not go into the garden with a pretty woman who flattered him, as he was a true blue married man, and Poriot warned him not to leave the room. Sadly I will still read Osborne's next book, "The Unexpected Guest" I hope for so much more.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I couldn't put this book down. It was very interesting. The ending is very suprising!
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