A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie in Science and Inquiry

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A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie

Kathryn Harkup

Start date: July 1, 2017

Finish date: July 31, 2017

Discussion: Book Club 2017

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Book Club 2017

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Jul 10, 2017 Susanna - Censored by GoodReads rated it really liked it

Harkup knows her poisons *and* her Christie. (In most cases, she describes the cases without spoilers. In those cases where there are spoilers, this is clearly marked.)

Christie also knew her poisons. She was by training a pharmacist, and poison was her preferred form of literary homicide. (She confessed that she didn't like to use murder by gun, as "I know nothing of ballistics.") In most cases she was absolutely correct in her descriptions of the effects of various poisons - her most notable la ...more

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Jul 07, 2017 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: don-t-judge-me, academic-notations, non-fiction

鈥楢 is for Arsenic鈥� is a book written in 2015 comprehensively describing all of the poisons used by the murder mystery author Agatha Christie in her books (around 72 novels). Kathryn Harkup, the author of this encyclopedic work, is a chemist, having completed a doctorate. Christie was a volunteer nurse in the World War I and passed examinations to qualify as an Apothecary鈥檚 Assistant in 1917.

There were fourteen drugs used in many of Christie鈥檚 murder mysteries, so there are fourteen chapters in t 鈥楢 is for Arsenic鈥� is a book written in 2015 comprehensively describing all of the poisons used by the murder mystery author Agatha Christie in her books (around 72 novels). Kathryn Harkup, the author of this encyclopedic work, is a chemist, having completed a doctorate. Christie was a volunteer nurse in the World War I and passed examinations to qualify as an Apothecary鈥檚 Assistant in 1917.

There were fourteen drugs used in many of Christie鈥檚 murder mysteries, so there are fourteen chapters in this interesting book. Each chapter names the novel(s) where Christie used the poison under discussion, describes the mystery鈥檚 plot and how the fictional murders occurred (but not who done it), and adds in real-life murders in which cases were suspected as either source material for Christie or that had happened maybe because of Christie鈥檚 novel. Harkup goes into detail about the history of the drug and how the drug kills (mostly by disrupting various atomic or cellular chemical activities throughout the body). Observed physical effects are gone into detail as well, which mostly are horrific. She also describes the chemical structure, including drawings, of the poison鈥檚 molecule. The book includes: an Appendix of Christie鈥檚 causes of death in every book whether poison or not; an Appendix of some drawings of the chemicals; a selected Bibliography; and an Index. A brief biography of Christie is included, too. There are also many informative notes per chapter.

Did anyone notice I did not mention much about antidotes? Most of these poisons have no antidotes, although the author mentions what was, alas, tried and found to be ineffectual.

The poisons are: Arsenic, Belladonna, Cyanide, Digitalis, Eserine, Hemlock, Monkshood, Nicotine, Opium, Phosphorus, Ricin, Strychnine, Thallium, Veronal.

Personally I function in the world mostly with a Liberal Arts brain, so the chemistry bits went a wee bit over my head. I diligently studied everything schoolteachers threw at me, so, I wasn鈥檛 entirely at sea. I skimmed a few paragraphs, though.

Anyway. The book is basically an interesting 300-page encyclopedia of selected poisons, as well as a companion book for readers of Agatha Christie novels. According to Harkup, Christie gets it right almost 100% of the time.

The only lingering effect this book seems to have had on me is I currently will not eat or drink anything until I watch someone else go first - primarily my oblivious husband. Shhh. ...more

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