I chanced upon this book in the library and was immediately intrigued because the supernatural is not something I associate with Agatha Christie. And if you tell me both Poirot and Miss Marple are in a few of these stories, then of course I have to read this!
The Last Séance is a collection of short stories that are related to the supernatural. Allt he stories can be broken into two categories: stories that really involve the supernatural, and stories that only appear to involve the supernatural but which are actually based on human trickery. As you might expect, stories involving Christie’s two famous detectives tend to fall into the latter category.
Generally, I enjoyed all the stories. However, a few of them stood out, namely:
- The Last Séance: this titular story was pretty scary and made me think of The Witch of Lime Street.
- The Fourth Man: this story has a dysfunctional friendship at its core and while the mystery is never fully explained, the reader can infer the horrifying deduction as to why one woman may have multiple personalities.
- Philomel Cottage: This story evokes the fairytale about Blue Beard, with Alix Martin getting suspicious of her new, adoring husband. The way the tension kept building in this story had me at the edge of my seat.
- The Dream: This Poirot story was very smart. It has lots of supernatural touches, but a strange dream is no match for the master detective.
- The Blue Geranium: This Miss Marple story involving mediums and wallpaper flowers that mysteriously change colours was very ingenious. I honestly could not figure it out but Miss Marple makes it look simple!
- The Flock of Geryon: This reminds me that I’ve not read The Labours of Hercules, which is Christie’s take on the 12 Hercules-esque labours that Hercule Poirot undertook. I found this to be pretty smart and I’m very intrigued by Miss Carnaby as “one of the most successful criminals” that Poirot ever encountered.
As you might be able to tell, I was very entertained by these stories. I wonder if Christie ever tried her hand at a supernatural novel; I feel like she would be able to scare me pretty easily!
This looks perfect collection for the season.
It is! If only we have autumn here!
Oh, how interesting! I didn’t know Christie had written any supernatural stories. I’m really intrigued by her work now, but I am trying to commit to finishing Miss Marple first. I don’t know why, but I feel like I need to be semi-organized when going through her books., like I’ll miss one or something. So I will not be distracted by interesting supernatural stories! I will save this one for later! 😀
I think her Mr Quin stories had a touch of the supernatural as well, but these are a lot more explicitly about the supernatural side.
Being organised might be for the best – I just read haphazardly and I think I missed a lot!
Oh, wow. I feel like I am learning more about Christie all the time! It’s great she has so many books for me to read, though. I won’t run out for some time!
Wow! Is it possible there are Agatha Christie stories that I’ve never read … or have I just forgotten these? Either way, I’m excited!
They claim that there’s one story in here that’s not been published in the US! Most of this was new to me, but tbf I didn’t read that many of her short stories before
Very interesting! I’d love to get my hands on this one.
It’s really fun, I hope you can find a copy!
Oooh I’ve not read this collection, I’ll have to add it to my list!
It’s fun! I hope you enjoy it!!