Guilty Conscience: A play of suspense in two acts

by Richard Levinson

A brilliant and ruthless criminal attorney plots to kill his wife and tests each scenario in the courtroom of this mind. He creates an imaginary prosecutor and he pits himself against this alter ego in a series of witty, sometimes hostile exchanges. Again and again he is frustrated, unable to formulate the ultimate alibi. He is shocked when he learns that his wife and someone else are simultaneously planning to kill him.

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of three plays adapted from Levinson and Link (the creators of Columbo) tv-movie mysteries. This one involves a brilliant criminal defense attorney working out various scenarios on how to kill his wife. As in the other adaptations, L&L (doing their own adaptation) smartly leave the dialogue pretty much intact and the writing reads better for it. This will be the same review for the other two (Rehearsal for Murder and Murder By Natural Causes)as they are all decent adaptations with the onstage fireworks saved for the crisp L&L dialogue.

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this! It's a not a mystery in the traditional sense because you see it all play out and you know who's who the whole time. The cover lists it as "a play or suspense," and it certainly is. It is consistently clever and is full of surprises. It's a very good play.