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The Hound of Death

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Where I know the original magazine publication dates, I have given them. Each story has also appeared in either THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION AND OTHER STORIES or THE GOLDEN BALL AND OTHER STORIES.

"The Red Signal" (June 1924) Dermot and his uncle Sir Alington West (the famous psychologist) become involved in a discussion of premonitions at the Trents' dinner party. Dermot has had a few in his life - a 'red signal' for danger - while Sir Alington attributes them to subconscious observation. But tonight Dermot feels it again - although the only danger he can see is his love for Claire Trent, his best friend's wife.

"The Fourth Man" (December 1925) An Anglican canon, a psychologist, and a lawyer - all very distinguished representatives of the Church, Medicine, and the Law - fall to talking on a night train journey, ignoring the (apparently sleeping) man who also shares their compartment. While the viewpoint of the man in the street may have some merit, surely their own collective wisdom is good enough for the celebrated multiple personality case they're discussing...

"S.O.S." (February 1926) The Dinsmead family - pompous father, worn-down mother, and their 3 grown children - moved to a lonely country home rather abruptly upon Mr. Dinsmead's retirement from the building trade. Johnnie is suffering a series of running battles with his father, since he prefers chemistry to building, while his sisters are unhappy at being isolated in a house they think is haunted. Then a stranger (parapsychologist Mortimer Cleveland), stranded for the night by a flat tire, finds a mysterious message written in the dust beside his bed...

"Wireless", a.k.a. "Where There's a Will" (1926) Mary Harter's physician was careful to warn both his patient and her nephew, Charles Ridgeway, about her heart condition - that any shock could be fatal, but with care nothing would go wrong. When she then had a lift installed, thoughtful Charles persuaded her to get a radio as well. She enjoyed it at first, until it started giving messages from Beyond...

"The Call of Wings" - Silas Hamer was rich and content, a self-made man who had wanted wealth for material comfort rather than power, who believed in nothing that he couldn't see and touch. Then the music of panpipes, played by a strange, legless beggar with a beautiful face, catches his imagination, and he feels a call of immense freedom and wildness - but his money has turned to chains and shackles.

"The Gipsy" - Macfarlane (a Celt with a touch of second sight) and his best friend Dickie Carpenter were engaged to two sisters, until Esther dumped Carpenter without warning. But when Carpenter, an inarticulate, unsubtle Navy man, unburdens himself to his friend, he keeps getting off track, talking about his fear of gypsies, and how several times in his life he's literally had a gypsy's warning and disregarded it, only to have disaster strike - as in the case of his breakup, in fact.

"The Hound of Death" - Really a science fiction story. Sister Marie Angelique once saved her convent from the Germans by calling down lightning on them, but not through prayer; she has visions of another life, whether future or past, where such powers were understood and disciplined. Alas, Dr. Rose at the sanitarium where she now lives in England not only takes her seriously, but with an eye to turning such powers to his own use...

"The Lamp" - When Mr. Winburn, his widowed daughter Mrs. Lancaster, and his little grandson Geoff take #19 for a ridiculously low rent, she doesn't believe it's haunted, although a little boy starved there 30 years ago (having been ordered never to go out) after his father's arrest in another city. But her father hears the boy crying, and Geoff can see him and wants to help him. The title comes from Widburn's quotation of a poem, since he's convinced Geoff may indeed be able to help: "'What Lamp has Destiny to guide/Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?'/'A blind understanding,' Heaven replied."

"The Last Seance", a.k.a. "The Stolen Ghost" - Raoul Daubreuil takes it for granted that his fiancee Simone will give up her work as a medium after they're married - for one thing, it's destroying her health. But will the work - and her clients - allow her to retire gracefully? Clients like Madame Exe, who is determined to make contact with her lost little girl at any price...

"The Mystery of the Blue Jar" - Jack Hartington lives to reduce his golf handicap. Unfortunately, he's only 24 and far from retired, so he gets up at six every morning for an hour's practice before work. Then he starts hearing cries for help every morning near a small cottage near the course - cries nobody else seems to hear.

"The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael" - Sometimes titled 'Andrew' rather than 'Arthur' - one heck of a printer's error. The old baronet had 2 sons, and the pleasant Sir Arthur has been content to allow his middle-aged stepmother and little half-brother to go on living with him. She, for her part, is devoted to her own son, and has an uncanny air about her. Then, a month before young Sir Arthur's marriage, he's stricken with an extraordinary form of amnesia, and the narrator (a distinguished psychologist) is called in. Hmm. His stepmother certainly has a motive to see that he has no heir other than her son, but how could she have arranged *this*?

"The Witness for the Prosecution" - See THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION AND OTHER STORIES.

This short story collection contains 12 stories, most of them having to do with the supernatural in some way. The most famous entry, and one that has no supernatural elements to it, is "Witness for the Prosecution," which was later made into a well-received movie starring Charles Laughton. In it a young man is accused of murdering an elderly woman for her money; he has an air-tight alibi with his mistress, but on the witness stand she turns against him. His lawyer has his hands full, but finally finds a way to prove his innocence. Other good stories include "The Red Signal," about a death warning revealed in a séance; "S.O.S," about a dusty night table and a scrawled message for help; and "The Fourth Man," about a girl with four distinct personalities. Many of the stories were later re-published in a collection renamed after its most famous story, "Witness for the Prosecution." Fans of Agatha Christie's typical crime stories might be disappointed with this story collection, but there are still some interesting selections in it.

Trying her hand at writing into occultism and supernatural subjects, Agatha Christie failed to provoke new insights nor deliver any entertainment value.

Several stories were outrightly occultic, such as the Hound of Death. These have got nothing to do with crimes.

A couple of other stories such as the Blue Jar have some crime involved, and could be considered readable.

What mystery and crime readers would normally expect from Agatha Christie was a thorough investigation of the paranormal, sifting the clues and evidence, and exhaust all possibilities before leaving it as ... unexplainable by known facts. Had Agatha Christie done that, the stories would have been much much more readable.

"The Hound of Death" is a change of pace for Agatha Christie and her fans. Unlike her typical Poirot and Miss Marple novels, "The Hound of Death" is a collection of twelve short-stories (previously published separately, many of which can be found in other Christie anthologies) that each have the supernatural as their central subject. Despite this unifying theme, the collected stories are still rather disparate, divided roughly into those that contain genuine paranormal phenomena, and those that are simply crime stories in which delinquents use fraudulent methods to make their victims believe the supernatural is at work.

Despite supplying the title for the anthology, "The Hound of Death", along with "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael" and "The Last Séance" are atmospheric but rather ambiguous stories, to be expected considering these are the ones that deal directly with occultism. Touching upon past lives, mysticism and apparitions, they are rather vague and open-ended stories (at least for readers who are used to Christie supplying direct answers to her mysteries).

To my mind, "The Fourth Sign" is the only story with an occult explanation that really works; a chilling story of three men who discuss the strange case of Felicie Bault and her multiple personalities, only to be joined by the testimony of an eyewitness who grew up with the girl in question. His story sheds new light on the case as he shares the tale of his childhood in a state orphanage with Felicie and another girl called Annette Ravel, the toxic friendship between the two girls, and Felicie's ambition and zest for life, even in the face of death.

Christie seems on firmer ground when it comes to using her usual techniques of misdirection and red herrings in order to concoct crimes that may or may not be based in the paranormal. In "S.O.S", a doctor seeks out help in a country house after his car breaks down, only to find a strange family inside and a message drawn in the dust of his bedside table. In "Wireless" an elderly woman is astonished to find that her dead husband's voice is calling to her over her new radio, promising that he will come for her on the coming Friday. "The Mystery of the Blue Jar" involves a young golfer who can hear a terrible screaming coming from the vicinity of a nearby cottage - though no one else can.

Defying categories are the remaining stories, in which the touches of supernatural are only tangential to the story itself, such as "The Red Light" and "The Gispy" which deal with premonitions of the future, and "The Call of Wings" and "The Lamp", which draw more on religious matters as Christie explores life after death and material worth.

Finally, "The Witness for the Prosecution" deals with a case that is not only completely devoid of anything supernatural, but which never even pretends to. Mr Mayherne takes on the case of Leonard Vole, a man accused of murdering his elderly patron in order to inherit her fortune. He swears his innocence, and declares that his wife is able to provide an alibi, but Mayherne knows all too well that a devoted wife doesn't make for a reliable witness in the eyes of the jury. However, on visiting her, Mayherne is shocked to find that she is not as loyal to her husband as Mr Vole claims and insists that he is guilty of the crime. What's she really up to? This story feels a little out of place in this particular compilation, and can also be found in The Witness for the Prosecution and is of course the inspiration behind the film Witness For the Prosecution.

"The Hound of Death" won't please everyone, but for Christie fans it serves as an interesting selection of stories which are quite different from her usual fare but still stylistically recognizable as hers.

What a wonderful collection of short stories. These are very different from Agatha Christie's normal fair! All the stories seem to revolve around the occult or other supernatural occurances! A nice change from what I am use to where Agatha Christie is concerned! My favorite story was Witness for the Prosecution!

The short stories are mostly fantasy rather than mystery. I bit disappointed if you are expecting the classic Agatha Christic fictions.

And the stories are too short and fragmented.