A is for Arsenic

July 13, 2015
Harkup, a chemist and Agatha Christie fan, celebrates the 125th anniversary of the Dame’s birth with this intriguing and illuminating examination of Christie’s use of poisons in her mysteries. She begins by examining Christie’s background with regard to poisons, as well as her commitment to the ethos of the detective writer. Harkup does not name a poison for every letter, but she does include more than a dozen, arranged in alphabetical chapters from Arsenic to Veronal. She gives detailed, layperson-friendly explanations of how each poison acts on the body, along with its history and origin. Readers will also find real-world cases, including some that may have inspired Christie. In addition, the science, history, and literary explication are all leavened with a generous dose of poison trivia. Harkup includes two appendices: the first covers causes of death in Christie’s stories and novels, while the second provides chemical diagrams for many of the compounds. Though Harkup does not reveal any of Christie’s culprits, the book deserves a “Spoiler Alert” tag, as she does explain how the poisons are administered as well as how the respective sleuths come to their conclusions. This compilation should please mystery fans, true crime readers, and lovers of popular science.

September 1, 2015

Former research chemist Harkup examines the gamut of poisons successfully employed in Agatha Christie's mysteries. Each of the 14 chapters takes us through the history of a toxic chemical element, molecule, or class of compounds, its physiological effect (including possible medicinal uses at proper dosages), notable real-life murders, and a synopsis of how it was employed in Christie's work. Care is taken to not name the murderer, though twice "spoiler" warnings are given when revealing the culprit is inevitable. On a few occasions the author points out where Christie may have taken liberties for plot convenience, but Christie's own training as a pharmaceutical assistant served her remarkably well in crafting scientifically accurate tales. Appendixes include a list of Christie's stories with causes of death noted and another of chemical structures of compounds. Michael Gerald's The Poisonous Pen of Agatha Christie covers similar ground but aims for a more exhaustive inventory and readability suffers a bit. VERDICT Recommended for scientifically curious mystery lovers and aficionados of CSI-type forensic dramas.--Wade M. Lee, Univ. of Toledo Lib.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2015
If you're an Agatha Christie fan, read this book. If you're a forensic-science fan, read this book. If you know someone harboring a grudge and an unseemly interest in poison, hide this book. Harkup, a chemist, has written a knockout analysis of poisons used in Christie's novels and short stories, complete with an appendix that lists every Christie work in order of publication, with the cause of death for the more than 300 people who died at Agatha's hand. According to Harkup, Christie used poison in the majority of her stories and novels, dispensing the deadly draughts far more often than any of her contemporaries did. The text is alphabetical by poison (from arsenic to veronal). Cyanide was a Christie favorite, used to remove 17 characters. Each chapter gives riveting information on the poison's chemical makeup, how it kills, whether there's an antidote, its history, and its use in Christie's works and in real life. Along the way, we learn, for example, that Cleopatra watched her slaves after she poisoned them to see what poison left the best-looking corpse, and that Napoleon died from an arsenic dye in his wallpaper. Harkup emphasizes that Christie herself had firsthand knowledge of poisons, having worked as an apothecary's assistant during both world wars. This is an absolutely bravura chemical compound.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

June 15, 2015
Chemist Harkup's first book is the product of her passion for the work of Agatha Christie and her broad knowledge and research in the matter of poisons. Christie was a volunteer nurse in a hospital dispensary in Torquay during World War I, a position that required she pass exams to qualify as a dispenser. In those days, prescriptions were made by hand, so she had a strong working knowledge of drugs and poisons. With the publication of her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), Christie received one of her most cherished compliments when the Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist praised the correctness of her writing. Harkup devotes each of 14 chapters to a particular poison (belladonna, cyanide, ricin, thallium, and others), and she explains each thoroughly, including its origins, how to extract it from the most potent part of the plant, and its benign uses (for humans) such as pesticides. Then the author explores the most effective ways of dosing, whether by injection, dissolved in food, tea, or inhalation, and the effects on victims. She also lists antidotes, if there are any. Post-mortem testing is a large part of determining if a murder has been committed, and Harkup lists tests available at the time the books were written (many are still in use). This would be a perfect reference for anyone writing murder mysteries and is scientific enough to be used as a textbook, which is also its only drawback. Technical explanations will daunt average readers with little knowledge of chemistry (the author also includes an appendix with drawings of each poison's chemical structure), but the narrative is informative, and the author's easy style of writing makes up for the slow bits. The addition of real-life cases and comparisons to Christie's works make this a nice little murder mystery of its own. Fear not, she's careful not to spoil the endings of the classic novels.

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