The Rats: A Play In One Act

by Agatha Christie

Originally part of the collection Rule of Three...

Invited to a party in a London flat, Sandra Grey and David Forrester find themselves alone. Somebody knows about their affair and somebody has locked them in ...

Genres: Agatha Christie, Plays, Mystery

Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Mati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small drama about marriage and some fatal errors, like being responsible for death of husband and having affairs like crazy.
She got call that her distant friends are throwing party, when she got there she was surprised that they were actually on vacation what a surprise when she met there the most talkative woman who was feeding parrot. "Oh dear what a surprise" went trough the air and when man appeared it was clear that something was wrong. The parrot feeding crone left and they faced the terrors of terrors in very inteligent play.

Marriage triangle was solved very dramatically by one little trap thus name rats because both were caught in trap set by friend of the previous husband of that womn who died in strange accident thus she could marry again to the man she was now cheating on.

[Tali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure which came first, the play or the short story, but this one-act play follows basically the same plot line as The Spanish Chest (which stars Poirot as the lead detective). Having read the story first, I have to say that I prefer that interpretation of the mystery as opposed to this one, mainly due to this play's lack of redeemable characters and also due to it's inconclusive nature. It's very hard to like a mystery when no ending is really given. Still, the plot is one that holds well despite the different format, so I've given it three stars mainly for that reason, although two and a half would probably be more accurate of my feelings.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review on my book blog: http://quirkyreader.livejournal.com/2...

[Gail · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am near the end of having read all the mystery works of Agatha Christie. In my opinion, this is the worst of all of them. I was especially surprised at the bad language.