Title: Sparkling Cyanide
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count: 336
Rating: 4/5
Sparkling Cyanide was a delight to read, mostly because I’ve been running out of Agatha Christie books to read and so when I pick one up and it turns out to be stunning, it’s always a lovely little surprise.
Here, the murder case and the backstory was interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout, and I think it also kind of helped that Race didn’t play a particularly large role in the plot. It’s not that I have anything against him, but I do find that he’s much better in moderation. It always seems to me as though Christie’s at her best when her major players are just on the periphery.
That means that this one was a cracking little read, if only because of the mystery at the heart of it. The case here is that a woman committed suicide, only perhaps it might not have been suicide after all. Then all of the people who were present at the fateful dinner that led to the victim’s death decided to regroup and have a repeat.
Now, I’m obviously not going to tell you how it all turns out, because then you wouldn’t have a reason to pick it up, but I will say that I thought it was a pretty decent little murder mystery. You could easily read this as a standalone, even if you’re new to Agatha Christie, and so it’s one to keep an eye out for in the different shops and stuff.
Overall then, this is definitely a book that I’d recommend to you, whether you’re new to Agatha Christie or whether you’re an old school fan. There’s a little something here for everyone, as long as you like twisty–turny murder plots, and I can’t believe it took me this long to get to it.
