Witness for the Prosecution

Thriller / Characters: 8 male, 5 female Scenery: 2 Interiors

Only Agatha Christie could have conceived such a suspenseful thriller and then capped it with an uncanny triple flip ending. A young married man spends many evenings with a rich old woman. When she is found murdered, the naive young man is the chief suspect. The testimony of his wife is expected to result in an acquittal, but she is a shrew who damages his case and all but hangs him before a vindictive mystery woman appears with letters against the wife. After the man is freed, it is revealed that mystery woman is actually the wife. She discredited and perjured herself because she felt that direct testimony on her husband’s behalf would not have been sufficient to free him. When he turns his back on his wife and goes off with another woman, we realize that he was the murderer. He does not get away it, for there is one turn of plot remaining.

A walloping success. -Herald Tribune

Packs plenty of surprise in its cargo of suspense. -Daily Mirror

Winner of the New York Critics Circle Award