I was debating between two authors for the Wild Card - Agatha Christie and Charlaine Harris. Agatha Christie is my go-to mystery author, but I have been trying to actually finish the Sookie Stackhouse books, so I've been reading a decent amount of Charlaine Harris. I finally decided to go with Agatha Christie. My first Wild Card book was The Witness for the Prosecution. I'm using it for the Cozy Mystery square.

 

 

 

All in all I liked most of the stories in this collection. The story starring Poirot was the weakest in my opinion.  

 

"Witness for the Prosecution" (5 stars)-A lawyer is trying to keep his client from the gallows. The man says his wife can prove that he was home at the time an elderly women was murdered. The wife seems feel of spite for some reason. A mysterious witness swears she can prove the man's innocence. The ending will knock your socks off.

 

"The Red Signal" (5 stars)-A dinner party leaves a man with the horrible feeling that something horrible is about to happen. 

 

"The Fourth Man" (4 stars)-I did like that the story revolved around a man who knew the backstory to a famed woman with multiple personalities. I still don't really understand though the how behind some of this. No spoilers. Still a very good short story.

 

"S.O.S." (3.5 stars)-This one was so confusing. I had to read it through twice to just make out what was going on. A man stays at a cottage with a family and finds that someone wrote S.O.S. in dust in a nightstand in the bedroom he is staying in. 

 

"Wireless" (3.5 stars)-A tale about greed that ends on a surprising note. I really did like the ending to this one since it reminds me of a type of ending that the show Tales from the Crypt would have done.

 

"The Mystery of the Blue Jar" (3 stars)-I thought the main character in this one was not that smart. The ending proved it. It felt a bit rushed to me too since once again I thought it was way too much set up for something that may not have worked out in the end. So what would have been the back-up plan?

 

"Sing a Song of Sixpence" (4 stars)-Honestly the ending cracked me up. A retired attorney is called upon by a young woman "he made love" to to help out figuring out who murdered her aunt. The lawyer in question spends a good deal of time talking about how she's not as attractive as she was when she was young. The reveal to who did the crime was interesting. I just laughed at the ending to this.

 

"The Mystery of the Spanish Shawl" (3 stars)-A man receives a phone call telling him he has to go and save a woman's life. I once again question the main character's intelligence. Even I realized something weird was going on. 

 

"Philomel Cottage" (5 stars)-A newly wed woman is starting to get harbingers of death that revolve around an older love and her new husband. I loved the ending to this one. I also found an online link to this story if you care to read it: https://www.shortstoryproject.com/philomel-cottage/

 

"Accident" (5 stars)-This one had a really surprising ending. I enjoyed it a lot. It's about an ex-inspector who spies a woman who he believes to be a murderer. Everything that connects this woman shows that she seems to know some very unlucky people who keep having "accidents". By the end of the story you found out the truth. 

 

"The Second Gong" (3 stars)-A locked room mystery starring Hercule Poirot. Ehh. Sorry, I was definitely not feeling this one at all. A weak ending which I thought was an above average short story collection. 

Loved mostly all of these short stories. We end with a Poirot short story which weirdly didn’t fit the messed up theme that was happening in the other stories. Thought these were clever and morbid in a good way. 

Picked this one up to fill my "Witness for the prosecution" gap (even if it was a "it-was-his-slead" end).

 

It was easy to read, and entertaining enough, though I found curious how heavily dosed with spiritism and like "disciplines" it was.

This is a magnificent book in so many ways. It is not only an extremelly well researched and heart rending story of a man whoose life was destroyed by doing good, but also a fantastic social study of working class Manchester in the 60's. In parts it reads like a thriller, there are so many memorable descritpions but one of the most thought provoking is when David Smith is present in court to give evidence at Chester Assizes...

"Ian and Myra sit together in the dock, so near that I'm convinced I can smell them: her hair lacquer and his aftershave. Their physical presence goes through me like an electrical volt. Ian wears his grey trousers and jacket, with the waistcoat beneath; Myra is in a speckled suit, with a yellow blouse that should soften her face but doesn't. Her hair is white blonde, a candyfloss ball, while Ian is as immaculately groomed as ever. His head is bent, as he speaks softly to Myra and she listens, nodding slowly. Then she turns and her eyes lock on mine."

For anyone interested in true crime and in particular the brutal murders committed by Hindley and Brady this book stands as one of the best ever written.