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thaurisil's review against another edition
2.0
This is a rather strange set of stories. Unexpectedly for Agatha Christie, most of the stories are not mysteries, bur rather paranormal stories that deal with ghosts, seances, mind-reading and future-telling, the subconscious and other such spiritual, mystic themes. Most of the stories involve a psychiatrist or some sort of doctor or specialist who deals with the mind.
These are not particularly well-written stories, and if they weren't written by Agatha Christie, I doubt they'd have survived till today. I much preferred The Mysterious Mr. Quin, which is also a book of short stories each with a hint of magic, but each having a mystery and a solution that is very much based in the real, practical world.
To give Agatha Christie the benefit of the doubt, I think she knew that these weren't good stories. Most of them were written and published in magazines in the 1920s when she was still a budding writer. The actual book, when published in 1933, was published not by one of her regular publishers but instead of Odhams Press, and you could only get it by buying a magazine from Odhams, in which there was a coupon that you could exchange for one of six books. In short, this was a marketing gimmick by the publishers, and was hardly meant to be a serious book in the Christie collection.
Several people have stated in their reviews that The Witness for the Prosecution was their favourite story. I'm guessing it's because this is the only mystery story that resembles a regular Agatha Christie story. It's actually not a particularly good mystery story. My favourite is The Mystery of the Blue Jar, which seems to be about a ghost, but the twist at the end reveals that this is more of a mystery and that there is actually nothing paranormal about the story at all.
These are not particularly well-written stories, and if they weren't written by Agatha Christie, I doubt they'd have survived till today. I much preferred The Mysterious Mr. Quin, which is also a book of short stories each with a hint of magic, but each having a mystery and a solution that is very much based in the real, practical world.
To give Agatha Christie the benefit of the doubt, I think she knew that these weren't good stories. Most of them were written and published in magazines in the 1920s when she was still a budding writer. The actual book, when published in 1933, was published not by one of her regular publishers but instead of Odhams Press, and you could only get it by buying a magazine from Odhams, in which there was a coupon that you could exchange for one of six books. In short, this was a marketing gimmick by the publishers, and was hardly meant to be a serious book in the Christie collection.
Several people have stated in their reviews that The Witness for the Prosecution was their favourite story. I'm guessing it's because this is the only mystery story that resembles a regular Agatha Christie story. It's actually not a particularly good mystery story. My favourite is The Mystery of the Blue Jar, which seems to be about a ghost, but the twist at the end reveals that this is more of a mystery and that there is actually nothing paranormal about the story at all.
natalia86's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
3.0
Una serie de relatos cortos que me gustaron los primeros que aparecen Poirot y Miss Marple, mas el resto son pasables.
athirah_idrus's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
euro_trashed's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.0
somelatenightreading's review against another edition
4.0
Read 2024: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Hound of Death: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Red Signal: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Fourth Man: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
-The Gypsy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Lamp: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Wireless: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Witness for the Prosecution: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Mystery of the Blue Jar: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Call of Wings: ⭐️⭐️.5
-The Last Seace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-S.O.S.: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Hound of Death: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Red Signal: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Fourth Man: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
-The Gypsy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Lamp: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Wireless: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Witness for the Prosecution: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Mystery of the Blue Jar: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-The Call of Wings: ⭐️⭐️.5
-The Last Seace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-S.O.S.: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
a9r6's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
michelehoward's review against another edition
5.0
Loved the psychic phenomena, great twists in done of the short stories.
lesserjoke's review against another edition
4.0
A charmingly creepy departure for author Agatha Christie, who trades in her usual detective fiction for a dozen tales of the supernatural (or supernatural-adjacent). Normally when she's written of things like possessions and premonitions, their reality is ultimately undermined Scooby-Doo-style by some more mundane explanation. Here instead, those psychic phenomena are largely either confirmed outright or left lingering in tense ambiguity. The whole volume is fairly short, so no story overstays its welcome, and the audiobook narrated by Christopher Lee is a particular delight. It's a great read for fans of the writer or interested newcomers who don't care as much for the mystery genre.
[Content warning for ableism and racism including slurs.]
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[Content warning for ableism and racism including slurs.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter