The Hound of Death

From the book cover:

Twelve unexplained phenomena with no apparent earthly explanation...

A dog-shaped gunpowder mark; an omen from 'the other side'; a haunted house; a chilling seance; a case of split personalities; a recurring nightmare; an eerie wireless message; an elderly lady's hold over a young man; a disembodied cry of 'murder'; a young man's sudden amnesia; a levitation experience; a mysterious SOS.

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My Review:

There’s no question that Agatha Christie is the queen of mystery, this short story collection just adds further evidence to the heap.

 

One of the things I enjoyed about this collection is the absence of Hercule Poirot. I think every Agatha Christie fan has their least favourite of her detectives. If you’ve been following my reading challenge, you know that I’m not a fan of the little detective and his grey cells.

All of the stories in the collection contain some element of the occult, although sometimes it’s simply someone playing tricks, the intention is there.

My favourite story in this collection is ‘The Fourth Man.’It centres around a young woman with multiple personalities. Three self-important professionals (a doctor, lawyer and clergy man) sit in a train discussing an intriguing case about a young woman with multiple personalities. Because of their various fields, they feel confident that they will be able to come up with an intelligent solution to the mystery surrounding the girl’s death. The fourth man sits in their cabin listening to their reasoning and then blows the whole case wide open, proving that they are not as worldly as they think themselves.

My least favourite is the title story. It felt twice as long as its 19 pages. I struggled to get into it and couldn’t wait to finish it. The narrator is dull and protagonist and antagonist did not interest me in the least.

3/5