Sparkling Cyanide

E-book exclusive extra: Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on Sparkling Cyanide. Six people sit down to a sumptuous meal at a table laid for seven. A sprig of rosemary -- 'rosemary for remembrance' -- marks the empty place. It is the first anniversary of the horrific death by cyanide-laced champagne of the beautiful and troublesome Rosemary Barton. The assembled guests are the same participants at the meal a year prior, and Rosemary's widower, George Barton, is determined to prove that one of them is a murderer. But George's dinner party, and his plans for justice, will go terribly awry, as another death will come to haunt this date. Colonel Race of the British Secret Service, friend of Hercule Poirot (and a featured player in Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile), is on the scene to investigate. In Sparkling Cyanide, Agatha Christie seats six—including a murderer—around a dining table set for seven, one year to the day that a beautiful heiress was poisoned in that very room. Six people sit down to a sumptuous meal at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary—"rosemary for remembrance." A strange sentiment considering no one is likely to forget the night, exactly a year ago, that Rosemary Barton died at exactly the same table, her beautiful face unrecognizable, convulsed with pain and horror. But then Rosemary had always been memorable—she had the ability to arouse strong passions in most people she met. In one case, strong enough to kill. . . . Agatha Christie's genius for detective fiction is unparalleled. Her worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. No one knows the human heart-orthe dark passions that can stop it-better than Agatha Christie. She is truly the one and only Queen of Crime. Sparlkling Cyanide"Rosemary that's for remembrance" Six people are thinking about beautiful Rosemary Barton, who died nearly a year before. There's the loving sister, the long-suffering husband, the devoted secretary, the lovers, and the betrayed wife. None of them can forget Rosemary But did one of them murder her? In a Luxembourg nightclub, six friends sit down at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary, as a remembrance of Rosemary Barton, who was murdered exactly one year earlier-- by one of those present 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