Sparkling Cyanide (Agatha Christie Audio Renaissance)

Rating:
Summary: Character-driven plot has disappointing ending
Review: "Sparkling Cyanide" has all the elements of Christie's best books: well-drawn characters which are introduced in a clever, unusual way (each relates his or her memories of the dead Rosemary in a separate chapter), a strong plot, and more motive than usual. Unfortunately the mystery's solution is so completely contrived and unrealistic that it ruins the rest of the book. Definitely a must-read for the Christie style, but don't be surprised at the hokey solution.

Rating:
Summary: Still My Favorite Christie
Review: "Sparkling Cyanide," also published as "Remembered Death" was the first book by Agatha Christie that I ever read, and it is still my favorite.
The story centers around the death of Rosemary Barton. What is so interesting about this story is the fact that it is a year after Rosemary has died and the reader needs to piece together what actually happened through remembrances of others.
Whether you're just looking for a good way to spend a rainy afternoon or you're looking for a challenging mystery, this is a story every Christie fan should read.

Rating:
Summary: Still My Favorite Christie
Review: "Sparkling Cyanide," also published as "Remembered Death" was the first book by Agatha Christie that I ever read, and it is still my favorite.
The story centers around the death of Rosemary Barton. What is so interesting about this story is the fact that it is a year after Rosemary has died and the reader needs to piece together what actually happened through remembrances of others.
Whether you're just looking for a good way to spend a rainy afternoon or you're looking for a challenging mystery, this is a story every Christie fan should read.

Rating:
Summary: Who Mixed the Cyanide Cocktail?
Review: Agatha Christie goes back in time to solve a murder. The victim was Rosemary Barton who died the year before the story begins. She was celebrating her birthday with husband and friends at a fashionable restaurant when she apparently took her own life. Because no one present had any desire to kill her and cyanide was found in the depressed woman's purse, suicide was accepted as the cause of death. Nine months later, her husband George begins receiving anonymous letters saying the death was not what it appeared. These hints of murder lead George to suspect that one guest at the dinner party did indeed kill his wife. The killer strikes again a year later when an almost identical party is held at the same restaurant to celebrate the birthday of Rosemary's younger sister Iris.

Who was the beautiful heiress Rosemary Barton? Through the words of each of the characters, the reader gets various versions of Rosemary---her personality, her lovers, her love affairs, her marriage, her death.

Once again, Christie gives us memorable characters: Iris, the younger sister who failed to inherit but would receive all on Rosemary's death; George, the husband who just might be resenting her philandering ways; Ruth Lessing, George's faithful secretary; Anthony Browne, her gentleman friend with a notorious past; Stephen Faraday, one of her lovers; and Sandra Faraday, Stephen's wife.

Colonel Race, a recurring character in Christie novels, appears in this one as a family friend of the Bartons who is called in by George to find the killer.

In 1983 this novel was adapted to television. Unfortunately, by moving the setting from England to California and updating the plot, much of Christie's excellent novel suffered.

Rating:
Summary: Death From the Past Lends Itself To Great Detective Story
Review: Agatha Christie goes back in time to solve a murder. The victim was Rosemary Barton who died the year before the story begins. She was celebrating her birthday with husband and friends at a fashionable restaurant when she apparently took her own life. Because no one present had any desire to kill her and cyanide was found in the depressed woman's purse, suicide was accepted as the cause of death. Nine months later, her husband George begins receiving anonymous letters saying the death was not what it appeared. These hints of murder lead George to suspect that one guest at the dinner party did indeed kill his wife. The killer strikes again a year later when an almost identical party is held at the same restaurant to celebrate the birthday of Rosemary's younger sister Iris.

Who was the beautiful heiress Rosemary Barton? Through the words of each of the characters, the reader gets various versions of Rosemary---her personality, her lovers, her love affairs, her marriage, her death.

Once again, Christie gives us memorable characters: Iris, the younger sister who failed to inherit but would receive all on Rosemary's death; George, the husband who just might be resenting her philandering ways; Ruth Lessing, George's faithful secretary; Anthony Browne, her gentleman friend with a notorious past; Stephen Faraday, one of her lovers; and Sandra Faraday, Stephen's wife.

Colonel Race, a recurring character in Christie novels, appears in this one as a family friend of the Bartons who is called in by George to find the killer.

In 1983 this novel was adapted to television. Unfortunately, by moving the setting from England to California and updating the plot, much of Christie's excellent novel suffered.

Rating:
Summary: Murder Out of the Past
Review: Also known as REMEMBERED DEATH, this 1943 Christie novel is not among the author's most memorable work, nor is it among her most celebrated--but it is a solid piece of work all the same, and one that shows Christie toying with a favorite theme: a curious death in the past arouses suspicion that erupts into the present tense. A year previously London beauty Rosemary Barton unexpectedly dropped dead at dinner in an exclusive London restaurant--and when cyanide was found in both her champagne glass and in her evening bag, her death is ruled a suicide. But with the passage of time her surviving husband becomes suspicious and determines to restage the dinner party with an eye toward uncovering the truth. The result is yet another death--and once more cyanide is in the champagne glass.

As in many of her novels, Christie carefully limits the field of suspects to those actually at the table, and it soon transpires that virtually every one present had a motive for Rosemary's murder--and would have a motive to kill again. Is it Rosemary's sister Iris, who inherited a fortune upon her older sister's death? Rosemary's illicit lover, whose career could be ruined by scandal? Or perhaps his wife, who might have killed to save her marriage? Or is there a darker criminal element at work?

Although this novel reached the screen with David Suchet playing Hercule Poriot, fans of Suchet's performances should not be misled: Poriot does not appear in this particular novel, and the detective of note is Col. Race, who pursues the killer through an emotional interest in Rosemary's sister Iris. And indeed, this is one of Christie's more romantically-laced tales, with the story hinging on the various romantic and sexual entanglements of the various characters. The writing is solid and unexpectedly moody for a Christie novel, and while a few hardcore Christie fans may be able to spot the killer before the book's conclusion, most readers will be taken considerably by surprise. A fun, enjoyable read.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--

Rating:
Summary: if you know Christie style..
Review: because i read plethora of AC books,i know her style.i f you are a devotee of AC books,you know her style too.and generally guess right killer .this time i found out killer.but this book is well-written suspense book.you will like it.

Rating:
Summary: TRULY AWESOME
Review: Christie's novels where poison is the murder weapon are the most fun. Christie, who worked in a dispensary during World War I, had a certain amount of technical knowledge of various poisons; thus her fondness for it as a weapon in her books. Poison can be used by anyone; it is therefore the perfect weapon for Christie. This one is a particularly jolly romp complete with illicit affairs and mistaken identities. Light in tone, this is not one of her more serious books, but it is extremely clever and, as always, entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Remembered Death: Rosemary, for remembrance
Review: If you're interested in an audio edition, I recommend the unabridged narration by Robin Bailey, who's always good. At least one film adaptation exists under the title _Sparkling Cyanide_, made in 1983, but with the action moved to California. (However, the top-billed screenwriter was Sue Grafton.) The book's original title is _Remembered Death_, which better describes the story.

Six people are remembering Rosemary Barton, who died a year ago; the 3rd-person viewpoint changes in each of the first six chapters to give us their knowledge and opinions about her and her death. Each attended her final birthday party at the Luxembourg, and saw her die of cyanide poisoning. The verdict was suicide while of unsound mind (depression after influenza, since no other motive was apparent.)

Iris was always put in the shade by her glamorous, beautiful elder sister during their mother's lifetime, as their mother concentrated on Rosemary's first Season and subsequent marriage, but she knew her turn would come. Even their honorary uncle Paul left all his money to Rosemary, to go to Iris only after Rosemary's death.

Ruth Lessing, the young, perfect secretary to Rosemary's husband, George, organized his life, but certainly not his marriage. George even entrusted her with the task of paying off Victor Drake, Rosemary's unsatisfactory cousin, and seeing him off to South America. Victor amused himself by making Ruth see just how much she disliked featherhead Rosemary, and how much better off George would have been if he'd married Ruth instead.
Stephen Farraday, ambitious M.P., married the woman who could best further his career; when he met Rosemary, he succumbed to emotional madness and began an affair with her. In the end, he regretted it when Rosemary began to speak of divorce and remarriage, which would break him politically. Sandra Farraday, suffering the tortures of the damned, wonders how Stephen can imagine that she didn't know.

Tony Browne, one of Rosemary's social hangers-on, was alarmed that (through disreputable Victor) she knew about his criminal record; with so much less brains and character than Iris, she might give him away at any time.

Finally, George Barton, a middle-aged financier who deeply loved Rosemary, and who knew that she married him because she wanted a stable home life with a man she liked, rather than loved, lost both brightness and pain when she died. He's become suspicious of the circumstances of her death, and is staging another dinner party at the Luxembourg with the same guests. Colonel Race refused to attend.

The party ends with George Barton's murder (cyanide again), and Race gets involved in the investigation when he reveals George's suspicions to the police. The stage setting of the murder(s?) is much like that in the Poirot story "Yellow Iris", incidentally, but don't let that lead you astray.

This would be a good novel even without the question of the second death; the characters are developed beautifully, and the opening gambit of changing viewpoint is lovely. There are other aspects to care about: the Farradays' marriage, the developing love affair between Iris and Tony Browne, impressive Ruth Lessing, and even Iris' gullible aunt (who has spoiled her son Victor all his life).