Sparkling Cyanide

Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Because there’s someone there who twitters—twitters like a little bird.…A little bird told me—was a saying of my youth. It’s very true, Kemp—these twitterers can tell one a lot if one just lets them—twitter!”

At the point I write this, this final appearance from Colonel Race has been around for 72 years. It’s hard to read such old text with 21st Century eyes and not chuckle at the unintentional meanings that have crept into the language—or frown at the racial and misogynistic slurrings that would not be acceptable today. The character of Colonel Race is becoming ever more out of touch with modern ears; the veneer of his charm is wearing thin. For example, here’s what he says about Christine Shannon, a minor character who proves herself to be an excellent witness, whom, with little or no justification, he considers to be an airhead:

“If he’d put anything into Barton’s glass, that girl would have seen him. She’s a born observer of detail. Nothing to think about inside her head and so she uses her eyes.”

Luckily the bulk of the story is carried on the shoulders of others—including the neat bit of detection at the end—and the writing rates among Ms Christie’s finest. Critics such as Charles Osborne (The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie) have questioned how credible the handbag-and-table device is. Personally I cannot help but admire the beauty of its logic. I’m appreciative too of that faint whiff of a haunting, something that Ms Christie, either in mockery or in earnest, does so incredibly well.
But that’s just my own humble opinion…what do you think? Do let me know! Read (or rather re-read) for the Goodreads’ Agatha Christie Reading Group—and thoroughly enjoyed!


View all my reviews