Book Review: Sparkling Cyanide

Sparkling Cyanide

Sparkling Cyanide, at its core, is about a murder. Of a Rosemary Barton who becomes a victim of cyanide-laced champagne at her own birthday party attended by her husband George Barton and his secretary Ruth Lessing, her younger sister Iris Marle, the Farradays and Anthony Browne at The Luxembourg. In the inquest that follows, her death is dismissed as suicide, but then months later, George unexpectedly receives two anonymous letters claiming she was murdered. And so begins his plan to lay a trap to apprehend the murderer, and on the first death anniversary of his wife, he convenes the same gathering at the same place where she was supposedly murdered, under the pretext of his sister-in-law's eighteenth birthday.

The guests' nervousness at the dinner hit the roof because of their own associations with Rosemary, but, even in death, Rosemary, being the memorable type, hadn't left them for good, and so this seemingly innocuous mission to identify the culprit sets in motion a train of events that ends up far more fatal than ever imaginable. Sparkling Cyanide is what you call a perplexing mystery, and despite the absence of Poirot or Miss Marple (though we have Poirot's chum Colonel Race), Christie plays her cards well and deals with it in the most ingenious way, producing a solution that's masterly and thrilling. Through her skillful writing, she delves into the minds of her characters and gives the reader ample scope to suspect everyone of them, thereby making it a fascinating psychological read. An enthralling howdunit, beguilingly and cunningly sustained.