Britain has produced many literary greats over the years, but no one quite as gripping as Agatha Christie. Her mystery tales of murder are world renowned and have inspired countless films, television series’, stage shows and many more different adaptations and reinterpretations. With two of her stories currently playing in the West End, and another touring the country, I wanted to dive in with more stories from this eclectic writer.
The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories is a collection of ten short stories, each written by Agatha Christie. Beginning with the titular The Witness for the Prosecution, these stories are each self-contained and are focused on a small mystery each, each with surprising conclusions that are sure to leave you baffled and amazed!
I’m a huge Agatha Christie fan, with her novel And Then There Were None being one of my favourite books of all time, so getting some more Christie stories to get stuck into was so much fun. Having ten separate stories helped to keep the book interesting and varied, and meant that I wasn’t stuck with any story I didn’t get into for very long! Most of these mysteries were very interesting (I correctly worked out exactly none of them before the truths were revealed!), but three or four stories did fail to capture my attention or left me a little confused by the end of it. However, this book is a great way to test the waters with Agatha Christie if you’ve never read her stories before, and seeing the short, 30-page text that led to the stage show of Witness for the Prosecution was particularly interesting
If you want to try a Christie book without getting invested in a long story, this publication is a great place to start! If you’re a more seasoned Agatha Christie reader, I think there may be other stories of hers you may want to read first.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (ISBN: 9789354995484) was published in 2022
