Arsenic and Cyanide and Strychnine, Oh, My! A Guide to Agatha Christie’s Use of Poison

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Jul 5

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By Carol Pouliot

“Poison has a certain appeal...It has not the crudeness of the revolver bullet or the blunt weapon.” Agatha Christie

Cyanide, morphine, digitoxin, ricin, strophanthin, strychnine, nicotine, chloral hydrate, hyoscine, snake venom, and more. The list seemed endless, as Agatha Christie put her knowledge of poisons to work in more than half of her novels and short stories. One standalone even has it in the title—Sparkling Cyanide.

Christie’s victims inhaled poison, drank it in coffee, tea, and champagne, ate it, were injected with it, and suffered as it was absorbed through their skin. They were poisoned on land and in the air. It seems no one could escape.

Agatha Christie’s path to becoming a poisons expert began during World War I, when she served as a pharmacy assistant in the Torquay Red Cross Hospital. While working in the dispensary, she studied extensively both on and off the job, took, and passed the Apothecaries Hall Exam, qualifying her as an assistant pharmacist, or dispenser. Christie returned to pharmacy work at The University College Hospital in London during the Second World War.

Christie’s famous sleuth Hercule Poirot encounters poison from his very first appearance in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) to his final case in Curtain (1975). The beloved Miss Jane Marple confronts poisoners in no less than 4 investigations.

If you’d like to delve into some of the poison cases that Christie’s sleuths take on, check out these 11 Poirot novels and 4 Miss Marple mysteries, where poison takes center stage, doing away with the victim in a neat, clean, and effective manner. Enjoy!!