Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
A new thriller after The Mousetrap
The commission
The commission went to Harlan Coben. At first he had no idea, no thoughts, nothing. Then he had a first scene, and he gave the group that scene. They responded that it was good, and he told them it was all he had.
That night he went home, and by the next morning he had the rest of it. That has happened to him twice in his life. He is still working on the play.
Where the work really is
The idea is not the hard part. Gathering the information is kind of fun, and so is organizing it. Only writing counts as writing, and everything else is flotsam and jetsam.
How did The Mousetrap begin?
Agatha Christie wrote the story first as a 1947 radio play called Three Blind Mice, commissioned for the 80th birthday of Queen Mary. She then turned it into a stage play, which opened in London's West End in 1952. It moved to St Martin's Theatre in 1974, where it stayed.
Who earns the royalties from The Mousetrap?
Agatha Christie gave the rights to the play to her grandson Mathew Prichard as a birthday present when he was nine. It has been reported to have earned his family a substantial income over the decades. The gift was made around the time of the 1952 opening.
Why does the audience keep The Mousetrap's secret?
At the end of each performance, the audience is asked not to reveal the identity of the killer to anyone who has not seen the play. The custom has lasted since the early years of its run. Christie's other works have used similar secrecy.