Agatha Christie, Charles Osborne - Spider's Web

Charles Osborne completes his homage to Christie with this third and final adaptation of an original Christie play. Christie's exquisite timing and clever sleight-of-mind tricks are a delight, while Osborne has the good sense not to embroider the tale. A typical closed cast of characters occupies the temporary country home of Henry and Clarissa Hailsham-Brown: the seemingly scatterbrained Clarissa; her stepdaughter, Pippa; the odious Oliver Costello, who has married Pippa's mother; Sir Rowland Delahaye, Clarissa's godfather and a man of honor; an outspoken gardener; a butler; a cook; and Inspector Lord, the rather diffident policeman. Christie's bag of tricks includes hidden doorways, secret drawers, French windows and concealed identities, all used to amusing effect.