Title: The Hound of Death
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 247
Rating: 8/10
If you’re only a fan of Christie because of Poirot and Miss Marple then this book is not the book for you – indeed, if you only read her because of her crime writing then it’s not the book for you either. The Hound of Death is a collection of some of Christie’s finest short stories, and they’re mainly supernatural thrillers although there are a few other genres and a few hybrids included.
I actually enjoyed reading this more than some of her detective stories, because it gives you an interesting insight in to the way that the woman’s mind worked. If anything, the similarities between Christie and that other great crime writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are more obvious here than anywhere else – Doyle was well-known for his spiritualism and superstition at the end of his life, and he would have loved to have read this work if he’d lived for long enough.
As it is, we’re the lucky readers who get a chance to read Christie’s spine-tingling work, and I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of The Hound of Death if you can get your hands on it, particularly if you can get one of the gorgeous facsimile editions which I was lucky enough to find. You’re in for some of the finest short fiction available by any writer in any language.