One thing that I’ve discovered (and am really enjoying) about bookstagram are the challenges! There was the Wodehouse one which I missed, the 2019 Agatha Christie one which I also missed, and this 2020 Agatha Christie one which I am determined to participate in as much as possible! It’s a book a month, which I feel is doable, and I’ll probably be ‘refining’ my thoughts in a book review here first!

Sparkling Cyanide, a new read for me, is an Agatha Christie mystery that does not feature Poirot, Miss Marple, or Tommy and Tuppence. Instead, there’s Colonel Race, who I seem to remember as a friend of Poirot’s.

The movie starts when George Barton restages the dinner party where his wife died on the anniversary of her death. No one knows what to expect, but it’s certainly not his death by cyanide – the same poison that killed the beautiful, charming, and wealthy Rosemary Barton. Is it her sister, Iris, who inherited all her wealth? Is it Stephen Farraday, her lover? Or perhaps his wife, Sandra? What about the secretary, Ruth Lessing, who appears to be in love with George?

I really enjoyed the three-part structure of the book. The first part introduced all the characters, giving them a chapter to explore their relationship with Rosemary, from their point of view, and giving the reader an idea into a possible motive for murder. The second part revolves around the dinner party and George’s murder. The third is the actual investigation by the capable Inspector Kemp, Colonel Battle, and Anthony (Iris’ paramour) and denouncement. I thought that the three-part structure allowed the story to move from flashbacks to the present day smoothly and carry on to the investigation.

As for characters, I actually really enjoyed their relationships in this book! Rosemary, unfortunately, isn’t given much depth because she’s dead and can’t speak, but I liked how her sister Iris thought of her with affection but was candid about how they weren’t especially close. I also thought that the romance between Iris and Anthony, as well as Stephen and Sandra, were more believable than other romances I’ve seen in the mysteries. I think this is because the two relationships are pretty integral to the plot in terms of motive, which means that they are more fleshed out and hence more believable. In other Christie mysteries where the characters have a romance, it tends to happen towards the end of the book and feels rather sudden, probably because I never really caught on to the fact that the two characters were meant to get together in the end. Here, we get to see the relationships develop over the course of the novel.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I thought that most of the characters were sympathetically drawn and I liked how the investigations were carried out. The plot twist relies on some clever storytelling on Christie’s part and when I went back and reread the story, the denouncement fit in with the initial chapters, something that might have been tricky with the fact that all the characters, including the murderer, had their own POV chapter.

Featured Image: Photo by Me