Wednesday, 15 January 2020

The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural by Agatha Christie



The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural

by Agatha Christie

A review

Dame Agatha Christie is often referred to as the "Queen of Crime".  Rarely has an nickname been better chosen.  In a long and prolific career she published 66 mystery novels and 14 short story collections, creating in the process two of the most idiosyncratic sleuths in English literature – the misleadingly understated Miss Marple and the eccentric and foppish Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.  She was also a multi-record-breaker – being, allegedly, the world’s best selling writer as well as the author of the longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap.  But, perhaps what is even more notable is that in her case quantity never led to the sacrifice of quality.  Her work is consistently well-crafted and satisfying. 

A lesser-known fact about Christie is her interest in the paranormal.  This inspired several short stories, especially in the early part of her career.  Most of her pieces of speculative fiction were published in The Hounds of Death and Other Stories, first published in the UK in 1933.  These short stories (except for Witness for the Prosecution) together with other works dealing with the otherworldly, have now been issued as part of the Collins Chillers series, under the title The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural.  This is the most comprehensive collection to date of Agatha Christie’s supernatural oeuvre.  They show an aspect of the Dame’s writings which is worth exploring and unexpectedly reveal her to be a worthy figure at the fringe (if not exactly the mainstream) of the English Gothic and horror tradition.

Perhaps my last statement deserves some clarification. In my view, the quintessential English form of supernatural fiction is the ghost story.  Interestingly, though, only one of the stories (The Lamp) comes close to the typical haunted house tale.  Christie seems more concerned with what might be termed “parapsychological” phenomena – mysteries which lie at the fluid boundaries between the scientific, the psychological and the (as yet?) unexplained.  Premonitions, prophetic dreams, split personalities, strange coincidences … these are more likely to appear as subjects in Christie stories than your usual unrequited ghost.  Some stories also nod towards Eastern/Egyptian Gothic – most notably The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (featuring Poirot sweating it out at an archeological dig in Egypt), The Idol House of Astarte (which sees Christie venturing in almost folk horror territory) and The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael (a tale of dark Oriental witchcraft).    

It’s worth pointing out that in several of the stories, the supernatural element is merely a front for very human, criminal behaviour.  Of course, this fits into another long-standing strand of Gothic fiction – the so-called “rational Gothic” which runs from Ann Radcliffe to Scooby-Doo via The Hound of the Baskervilles.  I must admit I found these tales of “smoke and mirrors” somewhat disappointing as horror fiction, albeit perfectly satisfying from a purely narrative perspective.

What is notable in Christie’s brand of supernatural fiction is that she eschews the atmospheric scene-setting which are the stock-in-trade of the genre and she achieves most of her effect through tight plotting, unexpected twists and judicious control of the narrative. These are, of course, skills which served Christie well in her long career as crime writer.   However, to me, the more unsettling stories in this collection are those which are clear examples of weird fiction.  The opening (title) piece – The Last Séance – is a case in point, its gory denouement hitting the reader like a punch in the gut.  Other notably dark stories include the apocalyptic, “cosmic horror” tale The Hound of Death and, perhaps, the most nightmarish of all, The Dressmaker’s Doll.  Who knows – perhaps if Christie’s career had panned out otherwise, she would now be known as the Queen of Horror.  



Paperback368 pages
Published October 3rd 2019 by HarperCollins

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