While the Light Lasts

by Agatha Christie

Some of Agatha Christie’s earliest stories – including her very first – which show the Queen of Crime in the making…

A macabre recurring dream … revenge against a blackmailer … jealousy, infidelity and a tortured conscience … a stolen gemstone … the haunting attraction of an ancient relic … a race against time … a tragic love triangle … a body in a box … an unexpected visitor from beyond the grave…

Nine quintessential examples of Agatha Christie's brilliance are contained in this new collection of early short stories – including the very first one she ever wrote – and provide a unique glimpse of the Queen of Crime in the making.

• ISBN13: 9780008255497
• Publish Date: 22 March 2018 (first published 4 August 1997)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 256
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[brokentune]

This is another collection of short stories which were re-issued in this particular collection published in 1997, so not a compilation that Dame Agatha would have had a hand in compiling.

Nevertheless, there are some real gems amongst the stories. My personal favourites, the eponymous While the Light Lasts, The Edge and The Actress, are where AC shows some of the darker aspects of life, and she does it well.

The stories do not follow the usual formula of the who-dunnit and if that is what you are looking for you may as well pick one of her Marple or Poirot short stories. However, there are a couple that were later re-worked into Poirot adventures.

The stories contained in this volume are:

- The House of Dreams (first published in January 1926)

- The Actress (first published in May 1923 under the title of A Trap for the Unwary)

- The Edge (first published February 1927)

- Christmas Adventure (first published on 11 December 1923). This story was later expanded into novella form and was printed as The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Poirot).

- The Lonely God (first published in July 1926)

- Within a Wall (first published in October 1925)

- The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest (first published in January 1932). The story was later expanded into The Mystery of the Spanish Chest.

- While the Light Lasts (first published in April 1924)

- Manx Gold (first published in May 1930)

3.5* really, but not quite 4*.