A review by yourbookishbff
A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup

informative medium-paced

4.0

This was fascinating. Harkup works through the alphabet by chapter, naming a common poison used in an Agatha Christie mystery. She then describes how the poison works, how it causes death, how it is treated, where it appears in real life cases, and how it's used by Christie. I've never read Agatha Christie but I was excited to learn more about the poisons I've read in Lady Sherlock and histrom more broadly. Christie had a pharmaceutical background, and I was amazed by how frequently her stories are cited by doctors, investigators, and perpetrators in real poisoning cases. My mind drifted through some of the chemistry but I was always sucked back in for the historical cases. 

There are some dated comments in the opium chapter that do not hold up medically in 2024, particularly that medical use of opioids does not often result in addiction (to support this she cites a study of Vietnam vets who used heroine during the war and supposedly didn't use heroine when they came home? This feels like it came from a pharmaceutical company's sales brochure honestly). This commentary on opioids does not hold up given what we know of addiction in 2024. 

That said, this was a really interesting read and will be particularly enjoyable to Agatha Christie readers!
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