Sparkling Cyanide is a mystery novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1945 under the title Remembered Death and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in December the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.00 Boyfriend of Iris, who works to solve the many attempts to kill her.
- Stephen Farraday: rising member of parliament who had a brief but passionate affair with Rosemary.
- Alexandra "Sandra" Farraday: Stephen's wife, formerly the least favoured daughter of a prestigious noble family.
- Lucilla Drake: aunt to Rosemary and Iris, who will inherit if Iris dies childless and unmarried.
- Victor Drake: son of Lucilla Drake, a man with a desire to get money without work.
- Ruth Lessing: young secretary to George. Her name is a pun on the word "ruthless".
- Chloe West: actress hired by George because she bears a passing resemblance to Rosemary.
Short story vs novel developments
The plot of this novel is an expansion of an Hercule Poirot short story entitled "Yellow Iris", first published in the Strand Magazine in July 1937, then in book form in The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories in the US in 1939, and eventually in the UK in Problem at Pollensa Bay in 1991.
The full-length novel has Colonel Race as the central investigative character in place of Poirot, although unlike a Poirot novel, Race is not the one who ultimately solves the mystery. The novel uses the same basic plot elements as the short story (including the method of the poisoning), but changes the identity of the culprit. This was not the first time Christie had made this sort of change when rewriting her own work.
Literary significance and reception
The book was not reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement.
Maurice Richardson, writing in The Observer in 1946, stated,<blockquote>Agatha Christie readers are divided into two groups: first, fans like me who will put up with any amount of bamboozling for the sake of the pricking suspense, the close finish, six abreast, of the suspect race, and the crashing chord of the trick solution; second, knockers who complain it isn't cricket and anyway there's nothing to it.<br><br>
Fans, I guarantee will be quite happy with Sparkling Cyanide, a high income group double murder, first of wayward smarty Rosemary, second of dull husband George at his lunatic reconstruction-of-the-crime party. It is too forced to rank with her best Number One form, but the suspect race is up to scratch and readability is high. Making allowances for six years of Spam and cataclysm, quite a credible performance.</blockquote>
The Toronto Daily Star stated in its review that "Suspense is well maintained and suspicion well divided. While this mystery lacks Hercule Poirot, it should nevertheless please all Agatha Christie fans, especially those who like the murders in the fast, sophisticated set."
Robert Barnard, writing in his A Talent to Deceive, said: "Murder in the past, previously accepted as suicide. Upper-class tart gets her come-uppance in smart London restaurant, and husband later suffers the same fate. Compulsively told, the strategies of deception smart as a new pin, and generally well up to 'forties standard. But the solution takes more swallowing than cyanided champagne."
Adaptations
TV
In 1983, CBS writers Robert Malcolm Young, Sue Grafton and Steven Humphrey adapted the book into a television film, directed by Robert Michael Lewis, set in modern-day California and starring Anthony Andrews as the central character, Tony Browne, with Deborah Raffin as Iris Marle, Pamela Bellwood as Ruth Lessing, Josef Sommer as George Barton, David Huffman and June Chadwick as Stephen and Sandra Farraday, Nancy Marchand as Lucilla Drake, and Christine Belford as Rosemary Barton. The adaptation did not feature Colonel Race.
In 1993, the short story that served as the basis for this novel, "The Yellow Iris", was adapted for television by Anthony Horowitz and directed by Peter Barber-Fleming in an episode of the ITV series Agatha Christie's Poirot starring David Suchet.
In late 2003, the work was loosely adapted by Laura Lamson for ITV1, again in a modern setting, and involving a football manager's wife's murder. In this adaptation Colonel Race was renamed Colonel Geoffrey Reece, and given a partner, his wife Dr Catherine Kendall. The byplay between Reece (played by Oliver Ford Davies) and Kendall (played by Pauline Collins) has been stated to be somewhat similar to Christie's characters Tommy and Tuppence.
In 2013, Sparkling Cyanide was adapted as an episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.
Radio
In 2012, a three-part adaptation by Joy Wilkinson was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 directed by Mary Peate, with Naomi Frederick as Iris, Amanda Drew as Ruth, Colin Tierney as Anthony, James Lailey as Stephen, Sean Baker as Colonel Race and Jasmine Hyde as Rosemary.
Publication history
right|thumb|Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first published in the US)
- 1945, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), February 1945, Hardback, 209 pp
- 1945, Collins Crime Club (London), December 1945, Hardback, 160 pp
- 1947, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback (Pocket number 451)
- 1955, Pan Books, Paperback, 159 pp (Pan number 345)
- 1955, Pan Books, Paperback, (Great Pan 156)
- 1960, Fontana Books, Paperback, 160 pp
- 1978, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 358 pp;
- 2010, HarperCollins; Facsimile edition, Hardcover: 160 pages;
The novel's first true publication was the serialisation in The Saturday Evening Post in eight instalments from 15 July (Volume 216, Number 3) to 2 September 1944 (Volume 217, Number 10) under the title Remembered Death with illustrations by Hy Rubin.
The novel was first serialised, heavily abridged, in the UK in the Daily Express starting on Monday, 9 July 1945 and running for eighteen instalments until Saturday, 28 July 1945. The first instalment carried an uncredited illustration.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! No. !! Date !! Pages No.
|-
| 14,069 || Monday 9 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,070 || Tuesday 10 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,071 || Wednesday 11 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,072 || Thursday 12 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,073 || Friday 13 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,074 || Saturday 14 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,075 || Monday 16 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,076 || Tuesday 17 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,077 || Wednesday 18 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,078 || Thursday 19 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,079 || Friday 20 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,080 || Saturday 21 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,081 || Monday 23 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,082 || Tuesday 24 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,083 || Wednesday 25 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,084 || Thursday 26 July 1945 || 2
|-
| 14,085 || Friday 27 July 1945 || 4
|-
| 14,086 || Saturday 28 July 1945 || 2
|}
References
External links
- Sparkling Cyanide at the official Agatha Christie website