Tag: Stories

Agatha Christie – Witness for the Prosecution | Review

Title: Witness for the Prosecution

Author: Agatha Christie

Category: Fiction

Page Count: 288

Rating: 4/5

This collection brings together a bunch of Agatha Christie’s short stories, including the title story here, which I’ve also seen performed as a stage play. It was excellent as a play, and it was equally excellent as a story, even when I was consuming it for a second time. Better yet, it’s also bundled in with a bunch of other pretty good reads, although none of them quite stand out like Witness for the Prosecution.

Some people find that Christie’s short stories aren’t quite as good as her books are, while others argue it’s the other way round. Personally, I’d say that it depends, but I do think that a few of her short stories are her best pieces, especially if you go and read Miss Marple’s Final Cases, which was a masterpiece.

Here, some stories are great and some are just good, which is pretty much what I expect from any given collection by any given author. Overall, though, it’s on the stronger side, and definitely one that’s worth picking up. In fact, if you’re new to Agatha Christie, you could do a lot worse than to go and watch Witness for the Prosecution in the theatre and then to pick up the book so you can read it.

For me, this book worked effectively as a re-read, because I’d already read all of the stories that were within it from other sources. In fact, I whizzed through it so quickly, mostly just re-reading the stories that interested me the most, that I forgot to post a review. So I had to catch back up.

Learn more about Witness for the Prosecution.


John Steinbeck – The Pearl and Burning Bright | Review

Title: The Pearl and Burning Bright

Author: John Steinbeck

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 160

Rating: 3.75/5

This isn’t the best Steinbeck that I’ve read, but then it’s up against Of Mice and Men and a couple of his short stories, so that’s hardly surprising. That doesn’t make it any less of a worthwhile read though, and I’m happy to have been able to add this one to my list of completed books.

The Pearl reminded me of The Old Man and the Sea, although that’s not necessarily a good thing because I didn’t particularly like that. Luckily, I thought that The Pearl was a lot better, mainly because it looked at the gritty subject of the way that people take advantage of people as opposed to having a more philosophical bent.

Burning Bright was great too, but I have a self-imposed word count to stick to, so I’ll leave you hanging. Sorry.

Learn more about The Pearl and Burning Bright.