The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural by Agatha Christie

William Morrow Paperbacks, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-0062959140

Available:  Paperback, Audiobook, Kindle

The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural contains twenty short stories of the occult and supernatural penned by the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie. While each of the stories has unique aspects, a few stood out over the rest as exceptionally well executed. “The Last Séance” tells the story of an exhausted medium holding a session for a woman with disastrous results. In “Philomel Cottage”, heiress Alix King takes a new husband whose past she knows nothing about. An elderly widow receives messages from her deceased husband through a wireless set in “Wireless”. In “The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael”, the titular character has taken on the characteristics of a cat that had been killed by the lady of the house. “The Dressmaker’s Doll”, undoubtedly the best story in the collection, involves a doll that suddenly appears in a dressmaker’s workroom, and is found to move about the room when it is unoccupied.

There are a few stories where Christie’s famous detectives, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, get involved, too. The most entertaining of these takes is “The Flock of Geryon”, in which Poirot aids an heiress in investigating a dangerous cult. In “The Idol House of Astarte”, members of the Tuesday Night Club gather to discuss the strange circumstances of a murder at a fancy dress party, and the club wants Miss Marple’s opinion on the case.

The book contains a bibliography of books and magazines where her short stories were first published, as well as alternate titles for the stories if applicable.

While the subtitle of the book indicates that the stories contained in its pages are supernatural, this is somewhat deceiving. There are aspects of the occult and supernatural in the stories, but most of them have quite logical explanations to them. Another topic to address is language used in the stories. Christie’s treatment of the Asian culture is not what we would call respectful now. By using the term Oriental and associating Asian characters in her stories as mysterious, sly, and similar, it is definitely problematic. Treatment of mental illness is also something readers needs to be aware of with works from this time period. For instance, it is not unusual to see the terms “loon” or “loonies” used.

None of that is to say I disliked the book. On the contrary, I enjoyed this, and it was a quick read. Christie had a unique way of crafting her stories, and there is a good reason why she is called the Queen of Mystery. I would not, however, call her the Queen of the Supernatural. I would recommend this for readers who are Christie fans, or for those who aren’t quite ready to get into horror. This might be good for anyone who wants to explore spooky tales without the extremes the genre can get into. Recommended.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker