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A review by ashleylm
A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong
4.0
Great fun, and one of the most surprising books I've read, and not in the way you might assume (given that it's ostensibly a mystery).
Somehow I thought it would be one of those mid-century modern dry character studies where someone slowly goes mad, or someone ruthlessly murders someone and then tries to escape detection (from their vantage point, like a Highsmith), or there's just this increasing feeling of disquiet and you know something bad's going to happen but it likely won't happen to the last minute ...
Nope, none of that. That's not this book. It feels like this book for almost the first half. That's a lot of book to be leading you in the wrong direction. But be warned: somewhat spare, slightly gloomy, tense characters studies for almost 1/2 the book.
And then, it's like Barbara Cartland or Robertson Davies or Joe Keenan took over and said "that's enough bleak 50s modernism, let's have a bit of fun," and they became Charlotte Armstrong and sent the book on an entirely unexpected trajectory, and kept it up for the last half. I mean, it goes from Scandanavian levels of spare and bleak, to ... rom-com? You can imagine Ralph Fiennes and Rachel McAdams having fun in the film version.
I read the first half slowly and respectfully--I liked it--and then the last half last night around 2:00am-ish, literally couldn't go to sleep 'til I'd finished it. So fun!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
Somehow I thought it would be one of those mid-century modern dry character studies where someone slowly goes mad, or someone ruthlessly murders someone and then tries to escape detection (from their vantage point, like a Highsmith), or there's just this increasing feeling of disquiet and you know something bad's going to happen but it likely won't happen to the last minute ...
Nope, none of that. That's not this book. It feels like this book for almost the first half. That's a lot of book to be leading you in the wrong direction. But be warned: somewhat spare, slightly gloomy, tense characters studies for almost 1/2 the book.
And then, it's like Barbara Cartland or Robertson Davies or Joe Keenan took over and said "that's enough bleak 50s modernism, let's have a bit of fun," and they became Charlotte Armstrong and sent the book on an entirely unexpected trajectory, and kept it up for the last half. I mean, it goes from Scandanavian levels of spare and bleak, to ... rom-com? You can imagine Ralph Fiennes and Rachel McAdams having fun in the film version.
I read the first half slowly and respectfully--I liked it--and then the last half last night around 2:00am-ish, literally couldn't go to sleep 'til I'd finished it. So fun!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!