The Hound of Death and Other Stories

Book 254 - Agatha Christie - The Hound of Death and Other Stories

A wonderful mix of mysteriously weird and the supernatural written by the ‘Queen of Crime’ herself… Agatha Christie.

12 short stories… some brilliant…some mediocre…interestingly the title story is one of the dullest. It is a superb sidestep for her and in some cases truly terrifying…the characters in each story are as well formed as you imagine from Christie.

‘The Lamp’ is a true highlight…when a young widow and her sickly son move into a new house…they start hearing footsteps…crying…and the the son starts talking about the little boy he wants to play with. It is full of emotion and has a devastating ending…but worth the persevering the duller show more tales for incredible ones like this.

‘Wireless’ is the other truly standout story…dealing with greed…murder…voices from beyond and another twist of a conclusion. Wonderful.

I never knew Christie wrote these kinds of short stories and will definitely be looking for more. show less

This is a collection of twelve short stories, stories of unexplained phenomena, in most cases tales of the supernatural rather than detective stories.

Of the twelve stories I think The Witness for the Prosecution is the best. Agatha Christie later wrote a play based on this story which has subsequently been adapted for film and television. It’s the story of Leonard Vole, a young man who has been arrested for the murder of an elderly lady, Miss Emily French. He befriended this rich lonely old woman who left him everything in her will. He protests his innocence and is astounded when Romaine (who lives with him as his wife) refuses to back up his story at the trial. It is up to his lawyer Mr Mayherne to get to the truth.

I also liked the show more more supernatural stories – those with no explanation and those where the supernatural either have natural, scientific explanations or are plain con tricks. The narrator in The Hound of Death is unsure of how to view the events during the First World War where a Belgian nun, Sister Marie Angelique is said to have caused her convent to explode when it was invaded by German soldiers.

There are stories of premonitions, intuition or a sixth sense, stories of seances, haunted houses, nightmares, amnesia and a very strange tale The Call of Wings in which a millionaire hears a tune, played by man with no legs. show less

Although the cover doesn't indicate it, this is actually a book full of short stories. Agatha Christie is often referred to as a master of crime, however this book doesn't focus on crime the way her others do. Most of them are of murder. The short stories in this book mainly focus on mysterious events, usually focusing on the occult. There is quite a mixture. Several feature mediums, while others talk of the exchange of souls. Some have a good explanation, while others leave you wondering exactly what happened.

I have a harder time reading short stories, mainly because in general, I find that there really isn't a plot to be drawn into and their isn't enough of the writing to be drawn to the characters. These weren't too bad though. The show more focus on the occult and unexplainable kept my focus away from the actual plot and characters. Overall I liked this book. I have yet to find a Christie that I don't. show less

An interesting collection of short story whodunits that I found thoroughly enjoyable.

Supernatural Christie
A review of the HarperCollins eBook (October 14, 2010) of the Odhams Press hardcover original (UK October, 1933) collecting stories first published in magazines 1924-1927 or first published in the 1933 collection.

[3.42 average rating for the 12 stories, rounded down to a GR 3 or rounded up to a LibraryThing 3.5]
I've read about 2/3rds of the approximately 130 published works of Agatha Christie in my Complete Agatha Christie binge read. Since I haven't read everything yet, I can't be absolutely certain, but I think this is the only collection centering on Christie's rarest theme: the supernatural haunting or ghost story. The 2nd rarest is Christie's Ancient Egypt related book and play i.e. [book:Death Comes As the show more End|8310461]) and [book:Akhnaton: A Play In Three Acts|1193245]).

See cover image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Hound_of_death.jpg
Cover image of the original Odhams Press (1933) hardcover. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

The Hound of Death and Other Stories was initially only published in the UK and then not even by her regular publisher William Collins, who presumably wasn't interested in a non-Poirot non-detective collection. I could not easily source a paper or eBook copy and assembled this reading from public domain sources.

Although most of the stories start off with a supernatural theme, a few of them turn into something of a criminal nature (no spoilers from me as to which ones). The odd man out in the collection is the original short story version of Witness for the Prosecution (later famous as a play and for its various screen adaptations), which is entirely a crime story.

This short story collection counts against my Complete Agatha Christie binge read goal, so I have 17 novels (including 4 remaining Westmacotts), 3 short story collections, 10.5 full-length theatrical plays, 6 shorter radio plays and 1 autobiography left to go. Overall I am going to go with the official UK list of 166 stories, and the 29 or so still to go are in the collections listed below. If my count is wrong I'll adjust it as I get nearer to the end of my target.
The remaining short story collections would be:
1. [book:The Listerdale Mystery|37562] (UK 1934) [should be 12 stories]
2. [book:Problem at Pollensa Bay|1121677] (UK 1991) [should be 8 stories]
3. [book:While the Light Lasts|11634565] (UK 1997) [should be 9 stories]
Some of these may contain stories that I've already read in a US edition. A few individual stories may still need to be tracked down if I have missed something.

Individual ratings, synopses and sources. The synopses are setups only so I have not spoiler blocked them.
1. The Hound of Death *** An unscrupulous doctor is supposedly treating a refugee nun but is actually attempting to harness her destructive psychic powers for himself. Magazine publication date and source not known so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.
2. The Red Signal *** The men attending a séance after a dinner party are warned not to go home afterwards as danger awaits. As the evening proceeds one of them is murdered and one of the others is accused of the crime. First published in Issue 232 of The Grand Magazine in June 1924.
3. The Fourth Man *** Three men are travelling in a railway carriage with a fourth man who is apparently sleeping. They discuss a famous case of multiple personality disorder. The fourth man (who was actually listening) rouses himself and says he knew the woman back in childhood and tells them the background story. First published in Issue 250 of The Grand Magazine in December 1925.
4. The Gipsy *** A man has been haunted by dreams and visions of a fortune telling gipsy his entire life. Then he meets a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the gipsy of his dreams. No previous magazine publication date and source are known so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.
5. The Lamp *** A woman, her father and her young son move into a house which is rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of the son of a former owner. At times the crying of a child can be heard at night. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.
6. Wireless **** A lonely widow has her nephew as her companion. He encourages her to get a wireless radio for entertainment, especially on the evenings he is out with friends. But then she starts hearing the voice of her dead husband interrupting the radio broadcasts. First published in the Sunday Chronicle Annual in December 1926.
7. The Witness for the Prosecution ***** Leonard Vole is accused of the murder of an elderly woman but expects that his wife will give him an alibi. Instead, the wife ends up being a witness for the prosecution. Basically the same as the later full length stage play, but with a different ending. First published in the US with the title Traitor Hands in Flynn’s Weekly (Volume IV, No 2) January 31, 1925.
8. The Mystery of the Blue Jar **** A man who regularly goes golfing in the early AM before work begins to hear a cry of “Murder - Help! Murder!” at 7:25am. No one else is hearing it though. He asks a “Doctor of the Soul” to help investigate the situation. First published in Issue 233 of The Grand Magazine in July 1924.
9. The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael **** Two doctors attend a case where a young nobleman who was about to be married has somehow become enchanted and is beginning to act with animal-like behaviour. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.
10. The Call of Wings *** A rich man becomes obsessed with the music played on hand-pipes by a legless street musician. He begins to imagine that he is being lifted up into the air as if by a pair of wings. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.
11. The Last Séance *** Before retirement, a medium is asked to perform a final séance for a client who wishes to connect with her dead daughter. Tragedy occurs during the séance. The story was first published in Ghost Stories magazine in November 1926 under the title The Woman Who Stole a Ghost and then in The Sovereign Magazine in March 1927 under the title The Stolen Ghost.
12. S. O. S. *** A traveller has a car breakdown in a storm and goes to the nearest cottage for shelter. Although welcomed, he has foreboding feelings about the family there and when he is shown to his room for the night he finds an “S. O. S.” has been drawn in the dust on top of a cabinet. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing. show less

A collection of uncanny tales by Agatha Christie. An enjoyable change from her usual work but I had the feeling I've read most of them before, though the book wasn't in my LT collection. Spooky!

Interesting but patchy collection of short stories about the unexplained. They are thought provoking but I have read scarier.