Superstition – DaneCobain.com

Dashiell Hammett – The Dain Curse | Review

Title: The Dain Curse
Author: Dashiel Hammett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 192

Rating: 1.5/5

I was looking forward to picking this book up because I’ve read and enjoyed Hammett before and because the title of this one basically has my name in it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as the other Hammett that I’ve read and my overarching feeling while reading this was just boredom. I didn’t care for the characters or the case.

There were a few redeeming moments here and there when it came to the writing, and I also liked the fact that opium was mentioned, which seems to happen a lot in old school murder mysteries. But while this one did have elements of the private eye style that Hammett is known for, it also had a lot of superstition and mystery thrown in which I didn’t really care for.

All in all, this was a struggle for me to complete, and I ended up tackling it as a bedtime book by reading 25 pages at a time. Even then it was a struggle, so I can’t recommend it.

Stephen King

Click here to buy The Dain Curse.

Agatha Christie – The Hound of Death | Review

Title: The Hound of Death

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 247

Rating: 8/10

Agatha Christie – The Hound of Death

If you’re only a fan of Christie because of Poirot and Miss Marple then this book is not the book for you – indeed, if you only read her because of her crime writing then it’s not the book for you either. The Hound of Death is a collection of some of Christie’s finest short stories, and they’re mainly supernatural thrillers although there are a few other genres and a few hybrids included.

I actually enjoyed reading this more than some of her detective stories, because it gives you an interesting insight in to the way that the woman’s mind worked. If anything, the similarities between Christie and that other great crime writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are more obvious here than anywhere else – Doyle was well-known for his spiritualism and superstition at the end of his life, and he would have loved to have read this work if he’d lived for long enough.

As it is, we’re the lucky readers who get a chance to read Christie’s spine-tingling work, and I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of The Hound of Death if you can get your hands on it, particularly if you can get one of the gorgeous facsimile editions which I was lucky enough to find. You’re in for some of the finest short fiction available by any writer in any language.