Guillermo López Hipkiss

Agatha Christie

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A beautiful heiress is fatally poisoned in a West End restaurant... Six people sit down to dinner at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary - in solemn memory of Rosemary Barton who died at the same table exactly one year previously. No one present on that fateful night would ever forget the woman's face, contorted beyond recognition - or what they remembered about her astonishing life.

Sparkling Cyanide

Samiha Tasnim

Was she capable of murder? Most people were, if you came to it. Capable not of murder in general, but of one particular individual murder.


He paused in the doorway to say, over his shoulder: “Good show.”
"That,” said Anthony as the door closed behind him, “denotes supreme British approval.”

Giulia Pianta

In August I read 4 books by Agatha Christie, and one at the start of September, and out of all 5 this is the only one I hadn't read before.
I had read Yellow Iris, but it was a long time ago and I couldn't remember anything, and also they don't really have much in common aside the setting.

I found this so great! I was mislead so much and so often I could barely have figured it all out! I think I realised at one point it must have been (view spoiler)[Victor, but I couldn't imagine Ruth was involved too. I was suspecting Iris at times, and Anthony as well.>/spoiler> I am quite sad that this is the last appearance of Colonel Race, as he gave his best performance here I think. (hide spoiler)]

Nia C

3 Stars and a C. 

Kept me engaged until the end. Christie always manages to blow me away.

 Bruna Acioly Leão

Full disclaimer: I love Agatha Christie’s books and will pick any of them up at random at a given time that I feel like reading them. I don’t even read much of the synopsis. This one I chose because this cover was so pretty (I want to collect her books in these new Harper Collins editions now).

Since I am not going to talk about specific points of the book too much, I am just going to give a bit of historical background for it and explain my thoughts and feelings towards it.

This is novel is taken as part of a small Christie series featuring the character of Colonel Race who is featured in some of Hercule Poirot cases. It is an extension of a Poirot short story called Yellow Iris, which I don’t believe I’ve read, but is hard to tell with Christie books, because while I own some of them I have read others through borrowing from friends and libraries so I kind of lost track of exactly which of her books I read over the years. It had received mixed reviews at the time of its publication and has been adapted for some TV movies by ITV and CBS. *

Now for my actual thoughts. Personally I have enjoyed all of the books I’ve read from Agatha Christie, though some more than others - And Then There Were None comes to mind as one of her most mind blowing mysteries. This one was solid, it followed her usual formula of: 1) set up the crime; 2) introduce everyone’s personalities, relationships, backstories and motives for wanting the victim dead; 3) someone sets out to catch the murder; 4) another body appears; 5) actual police investigation begins; 6) a clever someone - either detective or someone else - solves the mysteries and explain the facts how they were to the other parties.

This is a tried and true formula for a lot of so called “cozy” mysteries out there, a trend that began largely with Christie’s books. The clues are all there, but there are so many twists and turns that she actually ties a know in your brain and you suspect a different character at every turn of the page. Personally I can never get quite right “whodunit” - if I suspect the actual murder originally is only because I was suspecting everybody anyway.
So all in all it was a great entertainment and I flew through it. The thing about these books is that they are like solving a puzzle; it is a great, fun mental exercise and you might even learn something from it about logical thinking, but you don’t get any emotional attachment to the story. That’s why, while I can say that Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors to read from, I can never call one of her books above my other favorites.

Another reason I didn’t give this book 5 stars is because I am trying to be more critical this year and actually notice the books that I love. This is not meant to put books down, but simply to give more value to those I put up. So there might be a lot of 4 stars around for books that I would still consider really great, just not a total favorite.

*All the historical background was taken from the wikipedia article for Sparkling Cyanide.

Read more at:http://brunawrites.tumblr.com/post/11...

Alesha Clifford

Catherine Andrews 

Beck Krystal

Megan Engela

Olivia Kacar

Subasri Srikanth

Ana Paula

Connie

Trop belle, trop légère, trop riche Rosemary ! Quel désespoir secret a conduit au suicide cette femme environnée d'admirateurs et d'amants, volant de cocktails en parties de bridge et de dîners en bals, sous l'oeil résigné de George, son mari plus âgé ? Nul ne le sait. Mais la question commence à se poser différemment le jour où ce dernier est informé par des lettres anonymes qu'on a assassiné son épouse. Cependant, le lecteur découvre, une à une, les raisons qui auraient pu pousser diverses personnes de l'entourage de Rosemary à vouloir se débarrasser d'elle. Toutes se trouvaient là le soir tragique où elle a bu une coupe de champagne additionnée de cyanure. Un nouveau dîner rassemblant les mêmes convives permettra-t-il, comme George l'espère, de confondre le coupable ? Peut-être... A condition qu'une nouvelle mort ne vienne pas compliquer l'affaire.

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