Book Review: A is for Arsenic

A is For Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Markup is pure geek. Seriously. This book is exactly what it says it is and I love that.

Markup takes 14 poisons A.C. uses and breaks it all down. How the poison actually works, who discovered it and by what process, known antidotes and when they became available, what A.C. would have known at the time she was writing, real cases of murder by the poison that may have influenced A.C. and cases clearly influenced by A.C.

Scientific geek combined with total love for Agatha Christie. sigh. I was in heaven.

I will share one bit. There are a number of verified cases where a person reading A Pale Horse, recognized the symptoms of thallium poisoning from the book, and was able to apply them to someone in their life, get the person to hospital, and tell the doctors it’s thallium poisoning….and it was…and the friend or family member lived because of it. Now that’s making a difference with your writing. Damn.

This book is hard to rate. I loved it and would give it a solid Five Pages. But if you are note a science geek and a huge A.C. fan, this book will not charm you. So be forewarned.