Lost in the fog, a stranger seeks refuge in a nearby house, only to find a man shot dead and his wife standing over him with a smoking gun. But the woman’s dazed confession is anything but convincing, and the unexpected guest decides to help. Remarkably, the police clues point to a man who died two years previously, but as the ghosts of a past wrong begin to emerge, a tangled web of lies reveals family secrets and chilling motives, where the real murderer turns out to be the greatest mystery of all.

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The Unexpected Guest opened at the Duchess Theatre in August 1958, where it was to prove a critical and financial success. It played for a total of 612 performances, breaking all previous box office records at the theatre.

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“There is an ingenious display of suspects, as if lids were being taken off wells of depravity and hastily put back." - Lawrence Kitchin, The Observer 

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"The impact is tremendous [...] Just when the murder seems solved [...] Miss Christie pulls her almighty knockout punch. I admit her complete victory." - London Evening Standard

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“It kept last night's audience in a state of stunned uncertainty; guessing wrongly to the last.” - Philip Hope-Wallace, The Guardian