While the Light Lasts

by Agatha Christie

[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*.