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I
was already a fan of Agatha Christie but had never read any
of her short stories, so I was eager to give The Last Seance
a try. It did not disappoint. This collection of short stories
has all the things we love in a good mystery. There are twists
and turns, false assumptions and surprise endings made even
more dramatic by the quick pace and bite size portions. We
get to visit our old friends M. Poirot and Miss Marple, who
are still at the top of their game figuring out the impossible.
Unlike the longer novels, you are able to read a whole mystery
in one setting, but you’ll probably have to have more
than one.
The unusual thing about many of these
short stories is the use of the supernatural. Christie excels
in the whodunit, but all of her masterminds are real people
who commit real crimes. In some of these stories, Christie
steps out of her comfort zone and dabbles in the paranormal
with remarkable success. She give the same attention to detail,
the same plot that lures you in, but the finale is beyond
this world. A few of the stories I loved that exhibited this
were the titular “The Last Séance,” “The
Idol House of Astarte,” and “The Dressmaker's
Doll.” Of course, some of them are just great stories
that look supernatural until Poirot or Miss Marple get on
the case. Whether supernatural or of man, these twenty tales
are Christie at her best.
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