Name: The Last Séance
Author: Agatha Christie
Short Story: 33 pages
Description from Amazon: Raoul Daubreuil insists his fiancée give up her activities as a talented and successful medium when they marry. However, he agrees to attend what is to be her last séance—with Madame Exe. But even Raoul can’t foresee the tragedy ahead.
Review as a Reader:
This was a short story and a quick read. I’m not usually a reader of short stories but I chose to read one by Agatha Christie before taking on another novel. The last Christie novel I started to read was a Hercule Poirot novel. He’s not my favorite character and part of the problem is he’s too British. I find myself not understanding a lot of what Hercule says and it was a struggle because of the differences in idioms, etc. I gave up reading the Hercule novel because I felt like I was losing the plot too often.
But The Last Séance was a quick and easy read. It allowed me to clean my reading palate after the Poirot experience. Although this short story was enjoyable, it didn’t have any profound message and none of the characters lingered after finishing the novel.
Review as an Author:
Going into the book, I was looking for tips on writing short stories in general. What I learned after finishing the book was that this short story circled one event and only one event. The characters in this book were one dimensional. I’m assuming creating more complex characters may be hard due to the short story format, but I believe a two-dimensional character would be possible. I’m wondering if short stories in general are more “plot-driven” and this one-event format is how it works.
I have read a few gothic short stories previous to this one and I sense that genre allows for a bit more characterization, especially if there is a psychological plotline.
So all in all, it’s my opinion that The Last Séance was written very well, like all of the Christie books. I learned a bit about the shorter plotline used in short stories and the book was enjoyable. I would recommend this book to someone who is going on a trip and needs something quick and easy to read where there may be a lot of distractions. It wasn’t hard to follow. The plotline is simple but enjoyable. I would also recommend this to any caretakers who are waiting in a doctor’s office, etc. as this can be read in one sitting.