A is For Arsenic: Agatha Christie review

Agatha Christie & a Review

Here are some recommendations for reading Christie's works

& a review for A is For Arsenic, by Kathryn Harkup

link to the Goodreads page here

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*Book kindly provided by the publisher Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review!*

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Fourteen novels. Fourteen poisons. Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's all made-up . . .

"Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other crime fiction writer. The poison was a central part of the novel, and her choice of deadly substances was far from random... Christie demonstrated her extensive chemical knowledge (much of it gleaned by working in a pharmacy during both world wars)...

Written by former research chemist Kathryn Harkup, each chapter takes a different novel and investigates the poison used by the murderer. Fact- and fun-packed, A is for Arsenic looks at why certain chemicals kill, how they interact with the body, and the feasibility of obtaining, administering, and detecting these poisons, both when Christie was writing and today."

A is for Arsenic is a celebration of the use of science by the undisputed Queen of Crime.

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Review

Stars:✦✦✦✦✧

If you like Agatha Christie, her books, chemistry, backround information or want to learn of real life cases (from which Christie may have gotten ideas) - this book is for you!

         Whether or not you've read any of her books you'll find this extremely fascinating, superbly constructed and jam-packed with information.

         Though it has some spoilers they aren't bothersome, but rather makes me want to read the books. The book is constructed so that if you choose to read about just a certain poison, how they kill, antidotes, real-life cases, historical facts or Agatha's dive into them, you totally can.

     What really fascinated me was to read about real-life cases during Christie's time and how they were potentially solved. As a chemistry student I also found it very entertaining when reading about how the poison actually interacts with your system.

So overall, I really loved this book, and if your interested at all I'd recommend you pick it up.

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Agatha Christie

Both Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are detectives that most people recognize to be Agatha Christies works of art. They have been adapted in so many ways and even the Guinness Book of World Records shows that Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time, with tnovels having been sold around 2 billion copies.

This "Queen of Crime" is one to thank for the structure of mystery books starting from the:

murder, multiple suspects (all with secrets), a detective gradually cracking them, and shocking twists at the end.

Culprits have been children, policemen, narrators, already dead individuals, and at times no-one or even every suspect.

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If you have no idea where to start from here is a list of four:

The classic choice, and her and the world's best-selling mystery book ever with 100 million sales:

And Then There Were None

My personal favourite so far, and becoming a movie this year:

Murder on the Orient Express

Voted the best crime novel ever in 2013, and close to the winner of "World's Favourite Christie" in 2015:

The Death of Roger Ackroyd

A really good continuation for fans of Hercule Poirot, and one of The Guardian's top 10:

Five Little Pigs

Read on lovelies,

Sally