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Sparkling Cyanide

By: Agatha Christie
Binding: Audio Cassette
Publisher: Macmillan Audio Books
ISBN: 0333908481
ISBN-13: 9780333908488
Released: 26 Oct 2001
RRP: £8.99
Average Rating:


Customer Reviews

Very Good - By: Jay Gregory, 16 Feb 2008
Despite a turgid beginning, the mystery picks up pace with the second death & the ending is a surprise.

The reviewer who claims this novel was filmed as a Poirot episode starring David Suchet is mistaken, & probably referring to "The Yellow Iris", a Poirot short story of the same name with a similar plot.
Rosemary for Remembrance - By: Jane Baker, 03 Jan 2008
This has alll the halllmarks of a Christie classic & is perfect entertainment for a wintry afternoon. So 1930s with dress & gay vocabulary, it speaks of another & very handsome era. Wonderfully entertaining with the requisite number of characters for a Christie drama. Always impossible to work out the murderer with Christie's "signature" of retaining some clue which when divulged fits & finishes the jig-saw. If you're looking for a light read which is also gripping & demands nothing more from you than sitting back to be entertained then this is it - & you will close the book as you finish it & sigh deeply with nostalgia & time well spent.
A good yarn - By: daisyrock, 20 Dec 2007
Just what you'd expect from AG - easy to read with plenty of finely drawn characters. I didn't guess who the killer was, but that's perhaps because the ending is rather contrived & unlikely. Extremely unlikely, in fact. But that didn't dampen the joy of reading a good page-turner of a story.
On the downside I found the two detectives (well, one detective, one amateur), a little difficult to distinguish one from another - both middle-aged, conservative guys, so I had to keep checking who was talking. Note that neither Hercule nor Miss M feature in this particular novel.
On the plus side, as well as the taught, intriguing plot, I reallly enjoyed the cut-glass, period English being spoken by the characters - Lord Kidderminster especiallly. It sparkles, like the novel's title, & is delightful to read.
Murder Comes Out of the Past - By: Gary F. Taylor, 19 Nov 2003
Also known as REMEMBERED DEATH, this 1943 Christie novel is not among the author's most celebrated work--but it is a solid piece of work alll the same, & one that shows Christie toying with a favorite theme: a curious death in the past arouses suspicion that erupts into the present tense. A year earlier, London beauty Rosemary Barton unexpectedly dropped dead at dinner in an exclusive London restaurant--and when cyanide was found in both her champagne glass & in her evening bag, her death is ruled a suicide. But with the passage of time her surviving husband becomes suspicious & determines to restage the dinner party with an eye toward uncovering the truth. The result is yet another death--and once more cyanide is in the champagne glass.

As in many of her novels, Christie carefully limits the field of suspects to those actuallly at the table, & it soon transpires that virtuallly every one present had a motive for Rosemary's murder--and would have a motive to kill again. Is it Rosemary's sister Iris, who inherited a fortune upon her older sister's death? Rosemary's illicit lover, whose career could be ruined by scandal? Or perhaps his wife, who might have killed to save her marriage? Or is there a darker criminal element at work?

Although this novel reached the screen with David Suchet playing Hercule Poriot, fans of Suchet's performances should not be misled: Poriot does not appear in this particular novel, & the detective of note is Col. Race, who pursues the killer through an emotional interest in Rosemary's sister Iris. And indeed, this is one of Christie's more romanticallly-laced tales, with the story hinging on the various romantic & sexual entanglements of the various characters. The writing is solid & unexpectedly moody for a Christie novel, & while a few hardcore Christie fans may be able to spot the killer before the book's conclusion, most readers will be taken considerably by surprise. A fun, enjoyable read.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--


Sparkling Cyanide (Agatha Christie Signature Edition). - By: Caroline Brown, 17 Nov 2003
this book is brilliant agatha cristie is an amazing writer, & this book just like her others is a good read once you pick it up you wont want to put it down.