Book Review: The Mousetrap

Title: The Mousetrap

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Play/ Mystery

The book I'll be reviewing this week is a bit different from the other books I usually read since it's a play. To be totally honest with you guys, I don't really like reading plays. I hated reading Shakespeare and other plays I had to read in high school and college. I don't know why but I just have a really hard time reading plays. However, I absolutely love going to see performances of plays and let me tell you, I went to see my fair share of plays when I lived in NYC... but that's another story.

So you're probably asking yourselves, WHY would you read a play if you know you hate reading plays?!?!?! Well, that's a great question! I think I mentioned before that I'm in a reading club on GoodReads and every 6 months or so they post a reading challenge and one of the tasks on the Spring/Summer reading challenge was to read 3 plays by a playwright. I wasn't planning on doing this task but then I found out that one of my favorite authors, Agatha Christie, had written some plays and I knew I had to read them. 

The Mousetrap takes place in Monkswell Manor, a boardinghouse that had been recently opened by Mollie and Giles Ralston. There are five guests staying there: Christopher Wren, an architect, Mrs. Boyle, a former jurist, Major Metcalf, a retired army major, Miss Casewell, a secretive woman we don't know much about and Mr. Paravicini, a strange foreign man who claims his car was overturned in a snowdrift and arrived unannounced. All the guests are stranded at the boardinghouse in the midst of a snowstorm when Detective Sergeant Trotter arrives on skis to inform the group that he believes that a murderer will be heading to the hotel -- one who murdered a Mrs. Maureen Lyon in London and who will strike two more times according to information he has received. As soon as he arrives, Mrs. Boyle is killed, which makes them realize that the murderer is already there. The detective must then interrogate everyone and delve into their past, if he wants to prevent the murderer from striking again. 

I really enjoyed reading this play. I'm a huge fan of Agatha Christie and mystery novels so it's not surprising for me that I liked it. It was very descriptive in terms of how the scenery was supposed to be so I could easily picture the scene in my mind. It was really well written and like any other Christie novel, it has its twists and turns, so you pretty much end up suspecting all the characters at some point in the play.
 

So... Just a little FYI before I finish my review. I googled this play and it turns out that it is the longest running play in history. It's been showing since 1952 in London's West End (equivalent to Broadway in NYC) and in November 2012 it's 25,000th performance took place. Wow! That's amazing! If I ever go to London, I'll definitely check it out! Anyway, if you have the chance, definitely check out this book/play. It's really good!

Rating: 5/5 

Also, if you have any book recommendations feel free to leave them in the comments section! Thanks!