‘I shall get my own way. I always do.” So says the confident and very rich student Helen Rollander (Ali Bastian) to her college professor Karl Hendryk (Robert Duncan).

Her ‘way’ is to secure extra private tuition from the charismatic East European exile. Perhaps suspecting an unstated romantic motive, the professor has refused.

Enter Helen’s millionaire dad Sir William Rollander (Martin Carroll) with an offer not to be refused. If Hendryk takes on the coaching, he will bankroll an expensive course of cutting-edge medical treatment that might just provide a cure for the professor’s invalid wife Anya (Cassie Raine).

Thus are sown the seeds of trouble in Verdict, the last work conceived specially for the stage by Agatha Christie, in 1958. As with everything from the pen of the Queen of Crime, the play naturally features a corpse before the story has advanced very far — and with a number of possible causes of the death. Murder, of course, is one.

This production, under director Joe Harmston, possesses the polish seen in all the plays offered thus far (since The Hollow, 2006) by the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, a specialist outfit operating with producer Bill Kenwright.

As is often the case with Christie, there is no shortage of stock characters. These include an aggressive and no-nonsense police inspector played by Andrew Malkin, a dapper doctor (Mark Wynter) and a garrulous Cockney housekeeper from Elizabeth Power. Mrs Roper doesn’t actually say “Lor, love a duck,” but you fear any moment that she might.

At the centre of the drama is the sympathetic character of Hendryk’s fellow expat Lisa Koletsky (Dawn Steele), a cousin to his invalid wife. That she might be more to him than a mere assistant is another interesting aspect to the life of this surprisingly popular academic.

Until Saturday. Box office: 01494 512000 (www.wycombeswan.co.uk.)