Sparkling Cyanide

A cute little mystery with many twists - every one of the suspects is, well, very suspicious.

The structure is different than your usual "whodunit": Our investigator, Colonel Race, doesn't show up until halfway through the book, he's not the one who does all the deduction, and (gasp!) he doesn't come up with the solution by himself. He's also a less memorable character than Agatha Christie's "trademarks", Poirot & Marple.

This book is set in London's well-to-do society, which I enjoyed with its "parlourmaids" and champagne and allusions to the life of politicians.
It was originally published in the early 1940s, and comes with that time's attitude towards women, which I do not enjoy with all of its stereotypes and mysogyny.

I was a little underwhelmed by the solution to the mystery (no spoilers, no worries!), or rather how the conclusion was reached. I found the way of reasoning quite implausible. The finale is fun nevertheless with some faster-paced action, and a satisfying ending.

Reading "Agatha Christie" on the cover of a novel leads to high expectations, and this time mine were barely met. If you're considering this book as your "first Christie", there are better options.

I have to say, I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to at first. It had been sitting on my shelf for over four months (actually, since four days before quarantine started) and I had chosen it not because the premise intrigued me but because it was one of the few Agatha Christie left I could find at local bookstores that I hadn't already read. "Sparkling Cyanide" seemed a very cliche title and the blurb on the back sounded overly dramatic and didn't really convey anything about the book's content.

I actually really loved this book, contrary to expectations. I loved the touch of starting with the flashback to the first suicide (suspected to be murder) told from every suspect's perspective, and each was given such good motives for murder that I honestly had no idea who it would be.

The solution did not disappoint and thought up a clever twist that was realistic, able to be seen by readers (if they think along the right lines!), and yet thoroughly unique from anything I'd seen before.