Black Coffee (play) in the context of "Hercule Poirot"

Black Coffee is a play by the British crime-fiction author Agatha Christie which was produced initially in 1930, but not published until 1934. The first piece that Christie wrote for the stage, it launched a successful second career for her as a playwright. In the play, a scientist discovers that someone in his household has stolen the formula for an explosive. The scientist calls Hercule Poirot to investigate, but is murdered just as Poirot arrives with Hastings and Inspector Japp.

The successful play was adapted as a film in 1931, but the film is now believed to be lost. In 1998, 22 years after Christie's death, it was re-published in the United Kingdom and the United States in the form of a novel. The novelisation was undertaken by the Australian writer and classical music critic Charles Osborne, with the endorsement of the Christie estate.