short story w/ twist ending

I think it may be an O Henry

A guy plots his wife's death. After dinner (for honeymoon or birthday or something), he kills her on the front stoop of their house, opens the door, and friends and family all pop out with the cliched "surprise!"

it's not an O Henry, though, of course, he was known for surprise twist endings. This is too modern a plot. maybe Donald Barthelme or perhaps Guy de Maupassant?

I love this idea. Let me know who it is.

It's also vaguely reminiscent of one of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected - sorry can't be more precise!

Does this sound familiar, or is it a different story with a similar plot?:

An older rich guy is worried that his young beautiful wife is cheating on him, and upon hiring a private eye discovers she's been spending a lot of time with his brother. He plots to murder her on his birthday and arranges some sort of alibi involving his volunteer work at a suicide prevention hotline and going home early when his wife will be alone. His plan comes off perfectly and he has just strangled her by his front gate when his brother emerges and starts to say "Well, was he surprised?"

I know I read it in one of my mom's murder mystery books, and I think the only anthologies she has are in the Malice Domestic series. I may be able to find it (much) later when we commence sorting through the family storage units.

Similar, but definitely not it.

I'm very certain that it was a bunch of friends and family that turned up at the end.

Anybody figure it out yet?

Might it be in Jeffrey Archer's A Twist in the Tale? More crime stories with twist endings.

flyingcamel: this is "The Surprise of His Life" by Elizabeth George, also found in her collection "I, Richard"

ok i dont know what it's called in english maybe "the surprise of his life" as mentioned above but in french class i read the story "cauchmare en jaune" meaning the nightmare in yellow basically lol
and its exactly that
i sure of it

benuathanasia, I'm not sure if you're still here, or still looking for this short story, but I'm almost 100% sure it's "Nightmare in Yellow" by Frederic Brown. (As the previous poster mentioned....) I just read the story two seconds ago, and it's exactly as you describe: A man has the murder of his wife all planned out. He kills her with a blackjack as they're standing outside their front door. He opens the door, flicks on the light, and "before they could see that his wife was dead and that he was holding her up, all the assembled birthday party guests shouted "Surprise!"" (It's his 40th birthday.)
I read the story in Carnival of Crime, but you can read it here.

lassiter8 and d2vge got it, thank you two so much!!!

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