You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

3.53 AVERAGE

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
mysterious medium-paced
adventurous mysterious
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
mysterious fast-paced
mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hkburke2's review

3.25

Not sure why this collection was pulled together. I like the stories, having read 3 of them in other collections... Just odd choices to put in one book?
adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

An odd little collection, published in 1961 (and then only in the US) but including stories from as far back as 1925. Three of the eight entries had even been previously released in other Agatha Christie volumes -- "The Last Seance" in 1933's The Hound of Death; "The Theft of the Royal Ruby" and "Greenshaw's Folly" in 1960's The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding -- which results in a rather repetitive read for anyone making their way through the author's body of work. The assortment is also somewhat eclectic, containing four mysteries solved by Hercule Poirot, two by Miss Jane Marple, and two that turn out to not be mysteries at all, but rather spooky tales of the genuine supernatural with nary a detective in sight. Some of these are fun, but even the better ones tend to lean hard on coincidence, which is not this writer's strongest tool. It's not a bad sampler introduction to her style, though.

[Content warning for gun violence, racism, and gaslighting.]

Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Christie's short story collections are always quick, fun reads. This one is a somewhat eclectic mix of Poirot (though not many new ones), Miss Marple, and one-off stories (without any of Christie's recurring characters).