The Golden Ball and Other Stories contains fifteen miscellaneous stories including mysteries, paranormal and general fiction. It's a decent collection, showcasing the range of Agatha Christie's talents. My favourites were The Golden Ball, The Listerdale Mystery, The Girl in the Train, A Fruitful Sunday and The Rajah's Emerald. My least favourites were the The Hound of Death and The Call of Wings. I don't really enjoy the ones with paranormal/supernatural elements. Overall the collection rating comes in at 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars. Individual story ratings and reviews below.

THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY: ****
THE GIRL IN THE TRAIN: ****
THE MANHOOD OF EDWARD ROBINSON: ***
JANE IN SEARCH OF A JOB: ***
A FRUITFUL SUNDAY: ****
THE GOLDEN BALL: *****
THE RAJAH'S EMERALD: ****
SWAN SONG: ***
THE HOUND OF DEATH: *
THE GIPSY: ***
THE LAMP: **
THE STRANGE CASE OF SIR ARTHUR CARMICHAEL: **
THE CALL OF WINGS: *
MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM: **
NEXT TO A DOG: **

MISC: THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY: ****

A widowed woman struggles to provide for her son and daughter when she happens across an advertisement for a cheap house. I really enjoyed this one. It helped that I guessed what was going on. But it was also just rather amusing. And I liked the happy ending. One strange thing though;

To distract herself Mrs. St. Vincent picked up the Morning Post, and glanced down the advertisements on the front page. Most of them she knew by heart. People who wanted capital, people who had capital and were anxious to dispose of it on note of hand alone, people who wanted to buy teeth (she always wondered why), people who wanted to sell furs and gowns and who had optimistic ideas on the subject of price.

Christie, Agatha. The Golden Ball And Other Stories (Agatha Christie Mysteries Collection (Paperback)) (p. 5). William Morrow Paperbacks. Kindle Edition.

Now I'm dying to know why people were buying teeth. 4 stars.

MISC: THE GIRL IN THE TRAIN: ****

A man helps a woman escape her uncle and finds himself embroiled in a mystery. Amusing little story. I liked how Elizabeth improvises with the ring in the sealed package to make George's little fancy about being in a mystery come true. 4 stars.

MISC: THE MANHOOD OF EDWARD ROBINSON: ***

A man wins some money and spends it while having a grand adventure. This one was kind of funny. Bit confusing though. 3 stars.

MISC: JANE IN SEARCH OF A JOB: ***

Jane answers a newspaper ad and finds more than she bargained for. This was average. Kind of too convoluted for me to really care about. 3 stars.

MISC: A FRUITFUL SUNDAY: ****

A couple go motoring on a Sunday and are shocked to find a stolen necklace. This one was pretty funny. I liked both characters and I enjoyed the plot. And I loved the ending. 4 stars.

MISC: THE GOLDEN BALL: *****

George Dundas is fired by his uncle for wanting to take a day off to have a holiday, so he proceeds to have an adventure. This was hilarious. I enjoyed it a lot. One of Christie's best. 5 stars.

MISC: THE RAJAH'S EMERALD: ****

James Bond (oddly enough, not the one you're thinking of - this was written long before Casino Royale) is jealous of his girlfriend Grace spending so much time with her richer, well to do friends and finds himself busy trying to keep up with the Jones'. This was good. I was left chuckling about the trouble James gets himself into. It's all particularly ironic when you consider that James Bond later becomes a spy, but here he is an accidental thief. Oops. 4 stars.

MISC: SWAN SONG: ***

An opera singer performs a private showing of Tosca. I liked the opera singer Paula. She was ruthless. And I felt sorry for Mr Cowan, the manager. He just wanted things to go well. 3 stars.

MISC: THE HOUND OF DEATH: *

A doctor investigates a nun who he believes as supernatural powers. This was weird. I didn't like it. 1 star.

MISC: THE GIPSY: ***

A gypsy continually predicts doom for a young man. I enjoyed this one although Dickie sounds like a bit of a moron. I mean maybe start listening to the lady? I liked the ending though. 3 stars.

MISC: THE LAMP: **

A woman buys a haunted house to live in with her son and her father. This started out alright but what a depressing ending. 2 stars.

MISC: THE STRANGE CASE OF SIR ARTHUR CARMICHAEL: **

A doctor is asked to investigate a case of memory loss that seems to have a supernatural twist. This was okay. Somewhat creepy. 2 stars.

MISC: THE CALL OF WINGS: *

A man struggles with his spiritual self worth. This was terrible. 1 star.

MISC: MAGNOLIA BLOSSOM: **

A woman is torn between two men - her husband and lover. It was alright. Kind of boring. 2 stars.

MISC: NEXT TO A DOG: **

A woman is running out of options to allow her to look after her pet dog. This is kind of morbid. Made me miss my own dog. 2 stars. ( )

I found the first seven stories in this collection pretty terrible, with unlikeable characters and plots that managed to be as pedestrian as they were improbable.

The second half of the book, though, shows the strength of Christie’s short stories— basically, when she stops writing short versions of her usual mysteries, and can really do something weird.

I’d separate the rest of the stories into two categories. First, the category I’ll call Genuinely Moving, including “Swan Song”, where an opera singer calmly gets revenge for her dead lover, “The Lamp”, where a young boy tries to befriend a ghost but instead wastes away and becomes a ghost himself, “Magnolia Blossom”, where a woman makes a sacrifice for her husband before being callously used by him, and “Next to a Dog”, where a young widow’s life is falling apart, and the only thing she loves is her poor old dog. They’re all very depressing, but good.

The other category I’ll call Absolutely Batshit. This includes “The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael” where a man turns into a cat (yes, really, though not in the way you’re imagining), “The Call of Wings” which is like if that one weird magical flute music chapter of The Wind in the Willows happened to a random rich businessman, and, my personal favorite, “The Hound of Death”, which I would call the most SF/F of any of Christie story I’ve read, and is totally weird and great. I want a whole book about the City of Circles. ( )

I am a big fan of Agatha Christie, but this collection was very hit or miss for me, mostly miss. Not a real mystery in the bunch although a couple of decent old style thrillers. The rest were IMHO silly romances that relied on ridiculous coincidences or supernatural fantasy tales that didn’t work at all.

Two stories that I enjoyed: Swan Song—an excellent thriller and Magnolia Blossom which in a way reminded me of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
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This is a collection of 15 short mysteries by Agatha Christie. They aren’t the typical mystery expected from Christie. A number of them have a romantic touch to them.

“The Strange Case of Sir Andrew Carmichael” is along the lines of the supernatural. “The Girl In The Train” is a mad-cap tale of boy-meets-girl on a train. “The Rajah’s Emerald” is the story of the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of a magnificent jewel. There is a little mystery and an enjoyable story in each one. Written in the 1920s and 1930s, they have the taste of the black and white movies of that era.

A selection of fun, light reads with the Christie touch. ( )

Short stories. Contents partly overlap with The Listerdale mystery ( )