A selection of the poisons Agatha Christie used in her novels and short stories. For each poison Harkup describes the biological action, the visible symptoms, how to test for it, where to obtain it (fortunately most poisons are not nearly as easy to find these days), and real-life crimes it has been used in. She refers to the stories and novels and, when there are spoilers, warns the reader and gives the option of moving past them. She comments on Christie's scientific accuracy, which turns out to be, within the limitations of the scientific knowledge of the times, mostly excellent. The account of thallium poisoning in The Pale Horse has even saved lives.

Some knowledge of biology and chemistry is an advantage because even though the author's explanations are clear enough they make only superficial sense. ( )

This is an enjoyable and informative read. It takes 14 of the poisons used by Agatha Christie in her books and looks at them in more detail. This covers the origin of the poison, how is it extracted and made and how it works on the body to cure (if it has therapeutic use) and kill. All of which is told in down to earth language such that the non technical specialist can follow what is being described, although not so much that you could necessarily extract the poison yourself!
From there is looks at cases involving the poison that occurred before and after the relevant books' publication. Some of them were inspired by a case, in others the book may have inspired use. The most interesting one from this perspective was where the book helped solve a poisoning case, as the nurse recognised the symptoms of her patient from the description in Christie's book. At times she was following old paths, at times her use of the poison was contemporary and in other quite novel.
There are 14 different poisons in here, and that felt like about enough. ( )

Um livro muito bom para os fãs de Agatha Christie. Ele esmiúça todos os casos apresentados quanto à sua plausibilidade e aponta os pontos onde Agatha acertou e errou.

Cada capítulo segue o mesmo padrão: é apresentado um pouco da história do veneno, a forma como ele mata, se existe antídoto, um ou dois casos reais e como Agatha o utilizou nos seus livros. Dá para perceber que a autora colocou um esforço de pesquisa imenso nesse livro e conseguiu escrever uma obra muito boa. ( )

I was really hoping for more background into Agatha Christie's own research and history regarding her stories and the chapters (drugs). However it was just using drugs from Agatha Christie's writings to discuss chemistry, not as it regards her fiction. Very dry and boring. ( )