The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories

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The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 744 ratings · 52 reviews

A murder trial takes a diabolical turn when the wife of the accused takes a stand...A woman's sixth--and a loaded revolver--signal premonitions of doom...A stranded motorist seeks refuge in a remote mansion, and is greeted with a dire warning...Detective Hercule Poirot faces his greatest challenge when his services are enlisted--by the victim--in a bizarre locked-room murd

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Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages

Published September 17th 2001 by St. Martin's Paperbacks (first published 1924)

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The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

Classic Film Adaptations: The 1950s

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Jul 26, 2010 ♥ Sarah ♥ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, anthologies, ilbn, lt

I am really horrible with short stories and this book taught me that! Because there are 11 short stories in this I didn't find the book as enjoyable as if the stories were full novels. I just couldn't be on one story long enough to REALLY get into it. However, when I look at the stories individually, I really enjoyed most of them, I would have just preferred them not to be short stories so I could get into the characters more. Here's what I thought of each individual story:

1.) The Witness for t...more I am really horrible with short stories and this book taught me that! Because there are 11 short stories in this I didn't find the book as enjoyable as if the stories were full novels. I just couldn't be on one story long enough to REALLY get into it. However, when I look at the stories individually, I really enjoyed most of them, I would have just preferred them not to be short stories so I could get into the characters more. Here's what I thought of each individual story:

1.) The Witness for the Prosecution - Excellent! I was surprised by the ending and it was intriguing to read.

2.) The Red Signal - This was pretty good, I was fairly surprised by the ending as well.

3.) The Fourth Man - The story within the story was fairly interesting, but the actual short story about the four men on the train I found to be unexciting and the ending didn't really go out with a bang.

4.) S.O.S - This one had me on the edge curious about the ghost and so forth but I found the ending kind of stale.

5.) Where There's A Will - This one was okay but I kind of suspected the ending with the talk of Charles and his fascination with electronic signals and such. Although, I did find it rather funny that her will ended up being burned. What irony.

6.) The Mystery of the Blue Jar - This one was one of my favorites from the book. Who would've guessed this ending! Fabulous...

7.) Sing a Song of Sixpence - This was alright. I didn't find the ending to be particularly exciting, but it wasn't what I expected at least.

8.) The Mystery of the Spanish Shawl - Like the Mystery of the Blue Jar, I did not expect this ending at all. So clever! This one kept my interest and was one of my favorites in the book.

9.) Philomel Cottage - This was a pretty interesting story that kept my intrigued for the most part. The ended of it seemed to be too hinted almost, well at least who Gerald ended up being. It was pretty cool at the very end though what ended up happening to him!

10.) Accident - I wasn't too impressed with this one. It had all the elements there, but it wasn't as mysterious as I generally like in my mysteries.

11.) The Second Gong - I NEVER would have guessed the ending of this one! It kept my interest pretty well and had a very Sherlock Holme's kind of feel. I liked that the ending was unexpected as well.(less)

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Apr 26, 2011 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-year-of-agatha

Witness for the Prosecution is an uneven collection--it contains seven stories that are fairly forgettable and might rate a mere 2 stars (especially the two involving people being swindled in overly complicated and unlikely ways), but then there are three absolute stunners that pull the rating up for me and make this collection a must-have. The uneven feeling comes about because the stories were written anywhere between 1924 and 1947 but published together in 1948, their only commonality being t...more Witness for the Prosecution is an uneven collection--it contains seven stories that are fairly forgettable and might rate a mere 2 stars (especially the two involving people being swindled in overly complicated and unlikely ways), but then there are three absolute stunners that pull the rating up for me and make this collection a must-have. The uneven feeling comes about because the stories were written anywhere between 1924 and 1947 but published together in 1948, their only commonality being that they hadn't been collected anywhere else yet! This makes more sense when we realize that Christie's stories often appeared in magazines first, to be collected every so often as books for the many fans who could not possibly track down a copy of, say, the March 1926 issue of Mystery Magazine.

The publication history also explains why the only Poirot story, "The Second Gong," would be in a 1948 collection even though it is clearly an *earlier* version of Dead Man's Mirror (1937) with a different solution! I felt as though I were in a game of "Clue" when I found myself reading a familiar story but then the murderer was someone other than expected. "The Second Gong" first appeared in a magazine in 1932; the novella Dead Man's Mirror, five years later. DMM is far superior; there are a LOT of characters and plot to cram into a short story, so the longer novella version feels far less rushed. Also, DMM has a charming cameo from Mr. Satterthwaite of the Harley Quin stories, and it was fun to see that he is a friend of Poirot's. Even though I prefer DMM, "Second Gong" is important for those of us who want a complete Christie collection because it does NOT appear in Poirot's Casebook, which ostensibly contains all the Poirot stories.

The other two treasures here are the taut title story, which was adapted as both a play and a film and has an ending that hits one with the force of a physical blow, and "Philomel Cottage", which is like a Hitchcock film in written form--terrifying suspense and a darkly ironic ending. (less)

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Oct 15, 2010 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall, I enjoyed this collection of Agatha Christie short mysteries. There is a strong theme throughout these stories that there is an explanation for everything; several of the characters believed in the supernatural, but that belief is always exploited. I did feel like her stories ended abruptly. Rated PG for disturbing elements.

The Witness for the Prosecution: A woman testifies at her husband's murder trial with some unexpected twists.

The Red Signal: A group of people attend a seance and a...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Penny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I always love reading Agatha Christie's short story collections because sometims i'm just not in the mood for a drawn out mystery. It's also more noncommital. I can read a story or two and then put the book down for later. Some may say that the endings are a bit abrupt, but I enjoyed the fact that I was in suspense for roughly 7 pages. I actually really enjoyed the first short story, Witness for the Prosecution, the best. The only reason that I didn't give this 5 stars was because of the last st...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Ariel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-agatha-christie

I love the short story anthologies. This was the third one I read this summer. Included are the following:

The Witness for the Prosecution is the story from which the title comes from. This is a story where the crime is what it seems but the people are not.

The Fourth Man was a very unusual story, one I had to give a great deal of thought to. It was not one of the regular mysteries with a cut and dried solution at the end. You are asked to suspend your disbelief and consider if souls can switch bo...more I love the short story anthologies. This was the third one I read this summer. Included are the following:

The Witness for the Prosecution is the story from which the title comes from. This is a story where the crime is what it seems but the people are not.

The Fourth Man was a very unusual story, one I had to give a great deal of thought to. It was not one of the regular mysteries with a cut and dried solution at the end. You are asked to suspend your disbelief and consider if souls can switch bodies.

S.O.S. is another one of the people switching mysteries Christie is so good at.

Where There's a Will is a very clever story of a nephew who attempts to speed up the receiving of his inheritance through some wicked means and of course gets exactly what he deserves.

The Mystery of the Blue jar was a favorite. In this story super natural elements are used to set up a con job.

Sing a Song of sixpence was one of the "closed door" type of mysteries where one of the people present has to be the murderer. The man who was brought in to solve the mystery was an acquaintance of one of the suspects. They had a May December type romance. I don't know if it was acceptable in Christie's time but not too many people today would be down with a seventeen year old having sexual relations with an old man. It came off very strange when he was waxing on how attractive he found teenagers.

The Mystery of the Spanish Shawl was another con type mystery evocative of The Blue Jar.

Philomel Cottage was another favorite. In it a woman may end up a victim of her new husband or is it the other way around.

Accident was another story that didn't play out the way you thought it would. You think the victim is going to be one person and it ends up being someone else.

The final story is a Hercule Poirot one, The Second Gong. Poirot is called to an estate to do an investigation and if you know Poirot he always gets his man.

This was enjoyable collection of short stories from the master of mystery. This is a highly recommended read.(less)

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Oct 27, 2011 Kunal Sen rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you could only read one agatha christie short story, let it be 'The Fourth Man'. A most unlikely, mousy, quaint sort of short story where almost nothing happens, nothing that's close to 'action' in any case. But this same story, for some reason, still remains downright the best short story she ever wrote. Felicia and Annette's stories are tragic, immolating, fascinatingly complex and profoundly bizarre.

Rest of the collection is also a B+. All the stories have their redeemable features. The pa...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Jessica Weleski rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: agatha-christie

This collection of short mysteries kept reminding me of O. Henry stories with their intriguing plot twists at the end of the story. There were so many plot twists at the end of "The Witness for the Prosecution" that I had forgotten the whole tangle by the time I went to see the stage production only a few months later. That was fortunate for me though because I got to join in the fun of seeing the clever story unfold all over again. One of my favorite stories in the collection that doesn't get a...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Lisa C rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries

As much as I enjoy Christie's novels, I've found time and again that I don't care much for her short stories. I respect that she's using them to try out ideas. Maybe the real blame belongs to the publishers--every collection I've read has a sort of theme or convention carried through each story. Since the stories are often ideas that didn't work very well, and it's the main idea that is used to collect the stories, I end up reading multiple stories with a convention that didn't really work. Most...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Joshua rated it 3 of 5 stars

I did enjoy some of the stories a lot, others not so much. In general, I find that anthologies such as this one are very often like that. Still, it's very nice to be able to pick up a book, read a bit of it, then put it back down for an extended period of time and not feel lost when you finally do pick it up again.

The only thing I'll say that disappointed me about this book was that there were several stories that seemed to overlap as far as their general plot and solutions went. On many occasio...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Greg Fanoe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Like a lot of short story collections, there are hits and misses, but unfortunately this one has a lot more misses than hits. I don't think the short story format works well for Agatha. It leaves just enough time for the set up and twist, the two things I care the least about. I love the meandering plot lines, red herrings, random character traits, incidental social commentary, etc. of Christie books and there's no room for any of that here.

"Philomel Cottage" and "Witness for the Prosecution" ar...more

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May 14, 2011 Timothy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 11th-grade-advisory

The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
Agatha Christie
288 pages
9780312979737

This book is a collection of short stories that mystery novelist Agatha Christie wrote. In this book, there are 11 stories that are about cases. In most of these cases, there are abrupt or confusing endings which may disappoint readers because there are times when the short story could be written as a whole book instead. An example of this is the first story of The Witness for the Prosecution. The story is abo...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Sammcnair rated it 3 of 5 stars

i checked out this book because the short story " Where there's a will" was referenced in another book. However, the reference was untrue or very obscure, because there was nothing in there about hereditary rights in the story. Anyhow, this was a group of interesting short stories, and the title short story was how a woman testified against her husband to get the charges against him dropped. Interesting...

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Jan 10, 2011 Annie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't read all of the stories, since I mainly got the book for "The Witness for the Prosecution." It's an interesting story, questioning truth and law. The lawyer, who needs evidence, is able to find it because he has a conclusion about what has happened, and is therefore easily manipulated.

The other stories were mysteries, but it surprised me how many combined the supernatural and psychology, like they were one and the same. For instance, a woman with multiple personalities strangles herself...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, agatha-christie

This is collection of short stories, so some of them are better than others. The only one I really disliked is "The Fourth Man". My favorites were the title story, "Philomel Cottage", and "Where There's a Will" (should have a been an episode of Suspense!). 3 1/2 stars.

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Jan 01, 2012 Patricia added it

This collection of short stories by Agatha Christie is a sampling of the author's genius for surprise endings. Some stories better than others, especially Philomel Cottage and When There's a Will. The Fourth Man was unclear and leaves the reader confused.

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Jan 10, 2013 Nayantara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Witness for the Prosecution is EXCELLENT. The other stories a good but nothing is as good as the first. So I suggest you read all the other stories before you start Witness for the Prosecution.

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Oct 10, 2012 L-chan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: agatha-christie

I thought all the stories were chapters in a big book. I wondered why Christie kept introducing characters until I finished the book and I realized they were separate stories.

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May 19, 2012 Tori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries, short

I really liked the short story this set was named after, "The Witness for the Prosecution". The rest floated around the area of fine-but-not-amazing,-usual-Agatha-Christie-but-not-Curtain-or-The-Orient-Express-brilliant.

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Jun 13, 2011 Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: agatha-christie, mysteries

I guess I expected the title story to be more like the movie. It was so short! It didn't seem like a fleshed out story to me. There seemed to be huge gaps in the story.

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May 15, 2013 Afref Fetter Fetter rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first short story, Witness for the Prosecution, is the best story I've read so far. The rest pale in comparison and the collection overall is mediocre.

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May 02, 2013 Regi Caldart rated it 3 of 5 stars

In my opinion, The Fourth Man, Witness for the Prosecution, and The Second Gong are well worth the read. The other stories, though very good, aren't necessarily her best.

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Dec 05, 2010 Sarah Tilatitsky rated it 5 of 5 stars

They are the BEST!!!!!! I love reading them. The stories are connected to one another like a twisted, warped timeline. READ IT! READ IT! Please.

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Sep 10, 2011 Meredith rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: agatha-christie, crime

This collection was quite enjoyable. Many stories ended differently than I expected--always good for mysteries.

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Jul 26, 2011 Martha rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a huge Agatha fan, and read all of her published works during middle school. Excellent collection of short stories.

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Feb 07, 2013 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Agatha Christie is a master of mystery writing. This is a compilation of short mysteries. It was an enjoyable read every time I sat to read a chapter.

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Jan 23, 2013 paris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, books-i-own, favorites

مجموعة قصص متوسطة الطول ..
تكتبها أغاثا كريستي ..
تراوحت بين الممتازة جدا في حبكتها وفكرتها ..
والمبهرة بتفاصيلها ..
وهناك أيضا بعض القصص متوسطة المستوى ..
أعجبتني كثيرا قصة شاهد الإدعاء ..

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Jul 29, 2011 Mary Newcomb added it

Classic Christie tales, wonderful in their simplicity and cunning.

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Jul 24, 2011 Tiana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: agatha-christie, mystery

This book was so suspenseful! I absolutely loved it!

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May 13, 2012 Mervi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english, fiction, mystery, short-stories

Most of the stories in this book are tight, well written, and present the reader with enough twist and turns to keep the pages turning. "The Witness for the Procecution", with the ultimate surprise ending, is saved for the last. Humor lovers will enjoy the "Mystery of the Spanish Shawl". Philomel Cottage is one I would recommend leaving the lights on for. Poirot fans will probably recognize the revamped "Second Gong" but it doesn't take away from the gems in this collection. All in all this is a...more

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May 14, 2012 Beverly Wiedemann rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm remembering why I don't normal read whole books of short stories. I love Agatha Christie, but I'm really more of a novel reader. The occasional short story can be great. A bunch in a row with no connecting characters...not so much.

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About Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880...more

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Books by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)

The Mysterious Affair At Styles (Hercule Poirot #1)

Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple, #1)

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“Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.

[Witness for the Prosecution, also published in The Hound of Death and Other Stories.]” — 115 people liked it

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