IS THE PEN STILL MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD? AGATHA CHRISTIE - PART 2: POISON MY DEAR! By Kimberly Thorn

Strychnine, arsenic, morphine, atropine, cyanide, oh my

You’ve probably seen those tea cups that have the writing that says ‘you’ve been poisoned’ inside the bottom of them. So, that after you have finished your lovely cuppa afternoon tea (otherwise known as your treat) you get your trick! Yes, even mystery lovers need a source of amusement once in a while.

I don’t think it’s a surprise to Christie’s fans that poison was her absolute favorite means of murder. In sixty-six stories, forty-one were as a result of one of these poisons: strychnine, arsenic, morphine, atropine, or cyanide. Her favorite? Cyanide, which she used to kill off eighteen characters. 

 To poison or not to poison, THAT is the question.

During World War I, Christie worked as a Red Cross Volunteer. From October 1914 through December 1916, she performed 3,400 hours of volunteer hospital service. She started out as a cleaner, however, it wasn’t long before she would assist in operations, including taking amputated limbs to be disposed of. Much to the dismay of her high society family, she continued serving during the war doing her part. It was once she started working at the dispensary that she would realize the full potential of poison.

The new murderer.

Poisoning brought new fears to Victorian high society. Domestic life was the most important thing. But poisoning was a fear that households realized could break their cozy existence. Why? Because a poisoner has to be a close person to the victim. How else would they administer the fatal dose? It would have to be a doctor, a maid, a cook, a care giver, or a family member. By someone you trusted, someone living in the house. What could be a more diabolical way to murder someone? Everyone in the home became a suspect. Besides, what do you really know about those that are in the home especially in that era? Parents often arranged marriages, and servants were meant to be ignored, only there to do the bidding of the home owners. To come and go as ordered. Their work is their lives. How easy for a servant to slip something into someone’s afternoon tea and be out of the room before there is a reaction?

Brother, may I?

In the 1920s drugs like opium, cocaine, heroin, and morphine, were readily available. Places would advertise them, encouraging giving them as gifts and they were actually for sale at high end department stores like Harrods. Agatha not only learned about poisons in her work in the dispensary, but she learned about opioids as well. However, for her, drugs would impact her real life much more than the poisons. She wrote accurately about characters who struggled with addictions. This knowledge would not only come from her work but from first-hand experience in dealing with her brother Monty who returned home addicted to morphine. Initially, he required it for the pain of a wound, unfortunately he became addicted and it ruined his life.