Kathryn Harkup (Bloomsbury Sigma)
Agatha Christie鈥檚聽 five-decade writing career saw her poison dozens of her characters, supplying the killers in her stories with an assortment of deadly chemicals, including poisons and venoms produced by living organisms and delivered via injection.
Chemist Kathryn Harkup has visited their use before in 2015鈥檚 A Is for Arsenic. : Agatha Christie鈥檚 chemicals of death looks at 鈥渢he more unusual means of chemical killing that [make] Agatha Christie a true 鈥楺ueen of Crime鈥�.鈥�
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Christie鈥檚 murders were made all the more authentic due to her scientific background: she was a pharmaceutical dispenser before she became a bestselling writer, and she furthered her knowledge of toxicology while volunteering as a nurse during the first world war. Harkup presents a detailed but never overwhelming account of the substances at the centre of her stories 鈥� and how many of them didn鈥檛 come in small bottles conveniently marked 鈥淒anger鈥�.
Spoiler: a dirty bandage that had recently dressed a cat鈥檚 ear infection is used to spread septicaemia in 1939鈥檚 Murder Is Easy, while the killer in Sparkling Cyanide harnesses carbon monoxide from coal gas. Harkup explains the science behind each murder, avoiding spoilers where possible. She considers, for example, the feasibility of a 鈥減oisoned dart hidden in an adapted cigarette鈥� and the consequences of imbibing toxic hat paint (feasible and not good, respectively).
Harkup鈥檚 analysis stretches to the fictional poisons Christie invented, like Benvo from 1970鈥檚 Passenger to Frankfurt, a drug that causes its victim to become fatally benevolent (Harkup concludes that 鈥渁pparently, this is a bad thing鈥�).
Antidotes to the murder methods are outlined 鈥� CPR may have saved the life of the dinner party guest who had unknowingly ingested opioids in 1962鈥檚 The Mirror Crack鈥檇 from Side to Side, while real-life cases that likely inspired Christie鈥檚 plots are explained in asides.
Drugged drinks are used as a murder method in several of Christie鈥檚 novels. Harkup writes of the disgraced Scottish chemist who worked as a bartender in 1870s San Francisco, and whose chloral hydrate 鈥渒nockout drops鈥�, slipped into patrons鈥� beer glasses, would later take his name: Mickey Finn.
Harkup reveals that many of the drugs from Christie鈥檚 stories are still widely available. Barbiturates, as featured in 1933鈥檚 Lord Edgware Dies, are today prescribed as epilepsy treatments, such as Seconal. But she cautions against using Christie鈥檚 chemicals as 鈥渉omicidal inspiration鈥�, explaining that toxicology was 鈥渁 little different at the time Christie was writing鈥�. Would-be poisoners attempting to mimic her assassinations today would either be swiftly detected or else suffer a calamity.
Harkup balances the macabre with the scientifically intricate. For every passage detailing the chemical history of chloroform, there are accounts of real murders that Christie鈥檚 imagination may have influenced. We learn of a poisoned billionaire who in 2011 died after eating cat-meat stew laced with gelsemium, the same plant featured in 1927鈥檚 The Big Four. Harkup also deconstructs the hydrochloric acid murder in 1936鈥檚 Murder in Mesopotamia, drawing comparisons with today鈥檚 corrosive substance attacks.
Christie鈥檚 inventive killings made her a perennial bestseller. But it鈥檚 fitting that, as Harkup highlights, one of her favourite accolades came via The Pharmaceutical Journal. In response to her debut novel, 1920鈥檚 The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the scientific review noted, 鈥淭his novel has the rare merit of being correctly written.鈥�
George Bass is a writer based in聽Kent,聽UK
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