{"id":3363,"date":"2015-01-14T00:11:47","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T05:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.167.168.176\/~phillips\/kerriansnotebook\/kerriansnotebook\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2025-03-16T18:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T22:41:48","slug":"kn-p-133-what-poisons-were-in-agatha-christies-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pattiphillipsbooks.com\/kerriansnotebook\/2015\/01\/kn-p-133-what-poisons-were-in-agatha-christies-books\/","title":{"rendered":"KN, p. 133 “What poisons were in Agatha Christie’s books?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sheila is a big mystery buff and last weekend had a chance to attend an event in honor of Agatha Christie. Dame Christie\u2019s crime fiction has been more widely read than any literary work in history, except for the Bible and Shakespeare. Pretty good resume.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the facts that Sheila came home bubbling about was that lots of Christie\u2019s books featured poison as the weapon of choice. So, she asked me to find out how common those poisons were during the time that Christie was writing in the mid 1900s.<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer? Agatha Christie used both common and unusual poisons in her books, some readily available in the garden shed, some found under the kitchen sink and others found only in pharmacies. She had been a real-life nurse during WW1 and had lots of chances to learn about, as well as use, many drugs \u2013 some of which could have been poisonous if mixed incorrectly or administered in too high a dose. In Christie\u2019s 66 novels, she killed off over thirty unsuspecting characters with poison, some of which are described below. Her choices were based on what she needed to happen in the plot; did the killer have time to get away or did the storyline require a slow, unsuspicious death?<\/span><\/p>\n

Arsenic<\/strong> \u2013 arsenic is a tasteless, odorless powder that dissolves nicely in hot liquids like tea or coffee. The victim doesn\u2019t die right away, so the \u2018nice neighbor\u2019 can serve tea with cookies or muffins, then get away with murder when the victim dies hours later at home with a high enough dose. I\u2019ve been told that it\u2019s not a pleasant way to go, involving painful tingling in the hands and feet, kidney failure, abdominal cramping, arrhythmia, etc. Arsenic was used in \u201c4.50 from Paddington.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Belladonna<\/strong> \u2013 belladonna is a nightshade plant, with both the berries and leaves being really toxic. It was used in \u201cThe Caribbean Mystery.\u201d Victims might have rapid heartbeat, blurry vision, and hallucinations, but can be saved by using an antidote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cyanide<\/strong> \u2013 created most famously from the seeds of almonds or cherries, cyanide poisoning is a rapid way to get rid of a victim \u2013 dead in just minutes with the right concentrated dose. The person\u2019s breath is reputed to smell like almonds and the skin is tinged with pink after death. Cyanide was the poison of choice in \u201cAnd Then There Were None,\u201d and several other Christie books.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morphine \u2013 <\/strong>used as a painkiller in normal circumstances, morphine can be deadly if administered incorrectly \u2013 and Christie used that fact effectively in a pot of tea in \u201cSad Cypress.\u201d A great twist in the storyline diverts attention away from the murderer while he \u2018does the deed.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Strychnine \u2013 <\/strong>it only takes two to three hours to die from strychnine poisoning and it\u2019s not a nice way to croak. Muscle contractions start and spread, increasing in intensity, until the victim has respiratory failure. Christie chose this method for her first novel, \u201cAffair at Styles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While poisons may be a fascinating way to kill somebody on the page, in fact, it\u2019s not used that often in real life. And unlike blunt force trauma as a cause of death, the use of poison is not always obvious at the crime scene. Autopsies have to be performed to discover what happened, with special tox screens needed to pinpoint any poison used.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the FBI stats on murder victims in the USA as of 2011, over 8,000 people died because of firearms, and only 5 (five) because of a deadly dose of poison. If you include narcotics in that number, the victims increase to 34.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, it certainly makes the poisoner that gets caught, unlikely to get a reduced sentence. I doubt that a lawyer could explain away arsenic in the tea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*Photo by Patti Phillips<\/span><\/p>\n

FBI data from:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/about-us\/cjis\/ucr\/crime-in-the-u.s\/2011\/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011\/tables\/expanded-homicide-data-table-8<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agatha Christie and five poisons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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