Toxicology - Christie's Mysteries

The Motley Few, Act I

Posted on March 21, 2021April 30, 2021 by Harley

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Affair at the Victory Ball.**

“To Harlequin the invisible.”

Agatha Christie

A Singular Dedication

This dedication by Agatha Christie in her collection of short stories The Mysterious Mr. Quin is wholly unique because it marks the only time Christie dedicated one of her works to one of her fictional characters. It is apposite, however, as Harley Quin was probably her favorite among her creations. In her Autobiography, Christie states,

Actually my output seems to have been rather good in the years 1929 to 1932: besides full-length books I had published two collections of short stories. One consisted of Mr. Quin stories. These are my favourite. I wrote one, not very often, at intervals of perhaps three or four months, sometimes longer still. Magazines appeared to like them, and I liked them myself, but I refused all offers to do a series for any periodical. I didn’t want to do a series of Mr. Quin: I only wanted to do one when I felt like it. He was a kind of carry-over for me from my early poems in the Harlequin and Columbine series.

Unlike Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Harley Quin is not a detective. Rather he is an ephemeral being, arriving at the scene of mysterious circumstances (often involving romantic entanglements) to guide Mr. Sattherthwaite (who could be considered the detective in stories involving Mr. Quin) to the truth about the situations. Although he wears a typical dark suit, it is often described that the light hits him in certain ways to produce effects of a colorful motley or black domino mask. Christie continues,

Mr. Quin was a figure who just entered into a story--a catalyst, no more--his mere presence affected human beings. There would be some little fact, some apparently irrelevant phrase, to point him out for what he was: a man shown in harlequin-coloured light that fell on him through a glass window; a sudden appearance or disappearance. Always he stood for the same things: he was a friend of lovers, and connected with death. Little Mr. Satterthwaite, who was, as you might say, Mr. Quin’s emissary, also became a favourite character of mine.

The Mysterious Mr. Quin was published in 1930, shortly after the death of Christie’s brother Monty from a stroke possibly related to wounds suffered in World War I.

The character of Harley Quin only appeared in 14 stories, assembled into one collection (The Mysterious Mr. Quin) and as part of other collections (The Harlequin Tea Set and Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories). Apart from a silent movie in 1928, there has never been a cinematic or television adaptation of the works, and Harley Quin remains one of Christie’s lesser known characters.

Christie and the Harlequinade

As mentioned in What’s in a Dame?, Christie participated in amateur theatricals in her youth, and a common performance piece at the time was the Harlequinade. Derived from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, the Harlequinade as a pantomime, play, or ballet tells the story of Harlequin (from the Italian “Arlecchino”), a servile rogue with a predilection to aid lovers with the help of magic and invisibility. He romantically pursues Columbine, an intelligent and compassionate servant. His rival for her affections is Pierrot, who downplays his disappointment when spurned by playing tricks and pranks. The character of Pierrette was a female counterpart to and love interest of Pierrot. Punchinello and Pulcinella may also be servants but more often seem to be the masters in a situation, imposing figures with long noses and broad bellies. The Harlequinade would tell a variety of stories with this cast of characters, often involving some scheme to separate Harlequin and Columbine, and Harlequin would use a magical stick called a “slapstick” to resolve the silly situations – this is the origin of the term slapstick humor.

Pierrot was traditionally played by an actor without a mask and wearing white make-up, which is thought to be the origin of white clown make-up. Harlequin was traditionally masked with a dark brown or black mask, suggesting African influences on the character but more likely related to systemic racism within theatre and society in relation to the character of a servant. Punchinello appears to be the origin of the character Punch from Punch and Judy puppet shows.

Inspired by these theatrical scenes, young Agatha composed a great deal of poetry in her childhood. Some of the poems she wrote around age 17 were published in The Road of Dreams in 1924, including verses about Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot, and Pierrette; the young Christie even set her Harlequin poems to music. “Harlequin’s Song” describes the character with,

I pass
Where’er I’ve a mind,
With a laugh as I dance,
And a leap so high,
With a lightning glance,
And a crash and a flash
In the summer sky!
I come in the wind,
And I go with a sigh…
     And nobody ever sees Harlequin,
     “Happy go lucky” Harlequin,
Go by…
[…]
I must play my part…
     For never a soul has Harlequin,
     Happy go lucky Harlequin,
Only a broken heart…

Christie’s grandmother also owned a set of Dresden figurines from the Italian comedy, which are still part of the family’s collection. Drawing inspiration from her love of this set of characters, particularly Harlequin, Christie included them (and a similar set of figurines) in her first short story to feature Hercule Poirot, The Affair at the Victory Ball. The story was published in Sketch in 1923 and tells the story of the murder of Lord Cronshaw at the Victory Ball, which was followed closely by the death of the actress Coco Courtenay by cocaine overdose.

A Victorious Affair

Lord Cronshaw, 25 years of age, was rumored to be engaged to Ms. Courtenay. The pair attended the Victory Ball, dressed as Harlequin and Columbine, in the company of Punchinello (Lord Eustace Beltane, uncle to Cronshow who would inherit his title), Pulcinella (Mrs. Mallaby, an American widow), Pierrot (Chris Davidson, an acting friend of Coco’s), and Pierrette (Mrs. Davidson, Chris’s wife), in costumes inspired by Lord Beltane’s figure collection. The mood was tense between Cronshaw and Courtenay, who requested Chris Davidson escort her home following dinner. After accompanying the tearful actress home, Davidson returned to his flat in Chelsea.

At the Ball, Lord Cronshaw was scarcely seen by the party for the rest of the evening until 1:30 a.m., when he was spotted by a Captain Digby. He asked Lord Cronshaw to rejoin the group, but he had not done so after several minutes. A small search party was formed with Digby, Mrs. Davidson, and Mrs. Mallaby, who discovered Cronshaw stabbed to death in the supper room. On his body was a small enamel box half filled with cocaine and with the name “Coco” inscribed in diamonds. Also discovered tightly clenched in the Lord’s fist was a small green pompon, with ragged threads as though it had been pulled forcefully from its source. The next morning, the body of Coco Courtenay was found in her bed, her death due to an accidental or intentional overdose of cocaine.

These facts of the case are related to Hercule Poirot by Chief Inspector Japp, whose highest talent, according to Captain Hastings, “lay in the gentle art of seeking favours under the guise of conferring them!” Poirot visits Lord Beltane to view the original sculptures and the Davidson home to view the Pierrette costume, which had green pompons. At the conclusion of this investigation, Poirot arranges for a Harlequinade of his own, hiring actors to portray each of the members of the Cronshaw party. Through this elaborate reconstruction, Poirot reveals that Chris Davidson had killed Harlequin and worn a duplicate costume to pose as Lord Cronshaw at 1:30 a.m., several hours after the original Harlequin had been murdered.

Central to the dispute between Davidson and Cronshaw was the use of cocaine by Ms. Courtenay. Lord Cronshaw strongly disapproved of the use of the drug and had demanded Coco’s supply earlier in the evening; therefore, Coco’s enamel box was found on his body. Davidson, who supplied cocaine to Coco, murdered Cronshaw to prevent his exposure as a drug trafficker. While escorting Coco home, he was able to provide her with more cocaine, likely encouraging her to take a larger dose out of spite for Cronshaw’s objections. The tragic result was the death of the young actress, as well.

By viewing the figurines, Poirot was able to ascertain that the elaborate rump and ruffle of the Punchinello costume would have prevented Lord Beltane from changing into the Harlequin costume without assistance. The two women were eliminated because Cronshaw was stabbed with a dull table knife, which would have required considerable strength. And upon visiting the Davidson’s house, Poirot noted that the green pompon missing from the Pierrette costume was cut with scissors rather than being torn off, as the pompon in the fist of Cronshaw was; therefore, the pompon was from Pierrot’s costume. These facts pointed directly to Chris Davidson as the perpetrator, who stabbed Cronshaw shortly following dinner and before returning Coco Courtenay home. Presumably, Davidson had a second Harlequin costume made before the Victory Ball expressly for the commission of his crime, but this is not detailed in the story.

True Crime Inspiration

This story was very obviously inspired by the death of Billie Carleton (whose given name was Florence Leonora Stewart), a young actress who died from a cocaine overdose after attending a Victory Ball at the Royal Albert Hall in 1918. Carleton was close friends with Reginald DeVeulle, a dressmaker who reportedly hosted opium parties at his house. DeVeulle, dressed as Harlequin, attended the Victory Ball in the company of his wife Pauline (costume unknown). While at the Ball, DeVeulle allegedly provided a supply of cocaine in a small silver or gold (reports vary) box to the actor Lionel Belcher to pass to Carleton.

After the festivities at the Ball, Belcher and two other actresses, Olive Richardson and Irene Castle, returned to Carleton’s apartment to continue their revelry. It is not known what exactly transpired, but Carleton retired to bed early in the morning, and the others returned to their respective homes. Later in the morning, Carleton’s maid noticed she had stopped snoring; the maid was unable to wake her, and she was pronounced dead a short time later.

Carleton’s death was ruled to be the result of cocaine overdose. The police and public focused on her decadent lifestyle, as she was known to attend opium parties and her reputation had cost her at least one role. Looking to blame a “foreign” influence on her behavior and death, Carleton’s friend and costumer Reggie de Veulle, who allegedly supplied her with cocaine, was ruled to be culpable for her death at the coroner’s inquisition but then acquitted on a formal charge of manslaughter; however, he was charged with supplying cocaine to Carleton. A husband-and-wife duo, Lo Ping Yu and Ada Lo Ping, also received several months of jail time for their roles in supplying opium to the dead actress, among others.

Christie was no doubt inspired by this sensational story from a Victory Ball in 1918. However, her story added the murder of Lord Cronshaw in the guise of Harlequin. Cronshaw adamantly opposed drug taking and was murdered for his beliefs, so this appears to be a way for Christie to reclaim one of her favorite characters as a noble martyr after being used as a costume by a perceived villain such as de Veulle.

Christie even borrowed the name “Cronshaw” from a previous criminal lawsuit that involved Reggie de Veulle, where one of the victims was named William Cronshaw.

Cocaine possession was illegal in Britain following the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, which was passed in 1916.

Cocaine use is featured in several other Christie novels, including Peril at End House, Hickory Dickory Death, and the Labours of Hercules. Christie seems to have some sympathy for addicts, but her knowledge of the drug’s effects was more often used to typify the questionable morality of some of her characters.

Physiological Effects of Cocaine

Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid. It exerts physiological effects by binding proteins within the body, most notably the serotonin transporter, dopamine transporter, and norepinephrine transporter. These three transporters are involved in the transmission of the respective neurotransmitters from neuron to neuron in the central nervous system. When cocaine binds, the reuptake of the neurotransmitters is reduced or eliminated, causing prolonged stimulation of the downstream neurons.

Cocaine molecule

Inhibition of the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin is the primary function of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are popular antidepressant medications.

Additionally, cocaine binds to voltage-gated ion channels in the heart, which can result in cardiotoxicity. These channels are present on cellular membranes and control the amount of electrolytes present within cells versus between cells. Electrical changes in the cellular membranes control whether the channels are open or closed. Therefore, an interruption in the function of these channels can lead to deadly electrolyte imbalances.

Electrolytes are ionic (or positively or negatively charged) forms of mineral elements, for example, sodium (+1), potassium (+1), and calcium (+2).

Research has shown that the interaction of cocaine with dopamine receptors is the primary mechanism that drives addiction. In animals genetically manipulated such that their dopamine receptors do not bind cocaine, addictive behaviors do not manifest when the animals are provided and/or deprived of cocaine. However, the interaction between cocaine and the serotonin receptor may cause convulsions, so the displacement of serotonin does play a role in cocaine toxicity. Lastly, the inhibition of norepinephrine signalling by cocaine can lead to rapid increases in blood pressure.

Cocaine also interacts with cholinergic receptors and prevents reduction in heart rate. This interaction would cause an increase in heart rate (similar to atropine as described in Tuesday Night Fever). Coupled with the effect on voltage-gated channels and the increase in blood pressure from norepinephrine inhibition, damage to the heart is a central component of cocaine toxicity. Because the neurotransmitter receptors have a higher affinity for cocaine (in other words, cocaine can bind strongly at lower concentrations), the central nervous system is affected first; for example, the user begins to have seizures. With higher doses or concentrations of cocaine, the voltage-gated ion channels are then affected, and the cardiotoxic effects of cocaine are seen. The interference of cocaine with voltage-gated sodium, potassium, and calcium channels will cause cardiac arrhythmias, which are abnormal changes in heart rate. These arrhythmias can cause sudden cardiac death in cocaine users, even without any pre-exisiting cardiac conditions.

Christie does not provide specific details of Coco Courtenay’s death (nor other characters who perish from cocaine), but it is plausible that the victims suffered sudden cardiac death or a severe seizure. At Reggie de Veulle’s trial, a doctor testified that Billie Carleton had cocaine present in her nostrils and died as a result of an increase in blood pressure and the formation of blood clots in her heart due to the cocaine, which starved her body of oxygen and led to death. Interestingly, the doctor who attended Carleton the morning of her death stated he administered strychnine (and brandy) in an attempt to resuscitate the actress. She was 22 years old at the time of her death.

Some molecular targets of cocaine

Rigor Mortis

Another intriguing scientific principle that features in The Affair at the Victory Ball is rigor mortis, the stiffening of muscles following death. Because Chris Davidson donned a harlequin costume and impersonated Lord Cronshaw within 10 minutes of his cohorts finding the body, a doctor testified that the stiffening of Cronshaw’s body was abnormal. However, because Cronshaw had been killed several hours prior, this was actually the natural process of rigor mortis. In addition to suggesting the time of death, it also led to the discovery of the important clue of the green pompon, which was clenched in Cronshaw’s fist.

Skeletal muscle diagram

Immediately following death, all muscles in the body are fully relaxed. Within the first hour, some of the smaller muscle groups (such as the jaw and eyelids) begin to stiffen, followed by larger muscle groups. The timing of onset and development of rigor mortis can vary considerably due to factors such as the ambient temperature, and rigor mortis develops more quickly in higher temperatures.

In a living body, the functional unit of skeletal muscles, myofibrils, comprise the myofilaments actin and myosin. To contract, they are acted upon by adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is an enzymatic cofactor that is involved in intracellular energy transfer. In the presence of ATP, actin and myosin form the compound actomyosin, which physically shortens during muscle contraction. Shortly after death, the production of ATP ceases, and the crossbridges formed between actin and myosin no longer break down. This results in the muscle stiffening and shortness that is characteristic of rigor mortis.

An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes chemical reactions by reducing the energy required, and they are not consumed by the reaction. An enzymatic cofactor is a molecule that binds to a specific region of an enzyme and is required for the normal function of the enzyme.

Diagram of muscle contraction. After death, ATP is not available for Step 4; therefore, the muscles remain contracted.

Rigor mortis may take 6 to 18 hours to fully take effect but can occur more quickly in higher temperatures. If the individual who dies was engaged in vigorous exercise, such as a struggle, before death, the onset may even be more rapid; this was likely the case with Lord Cronshaw as he attempted to fight off Chris Davidson.
The discovery of the green pompon clasped tightly in Cronshaw’s fist may be less scientifically plausible. A theory of “cadaveric spasm” posits that rigor mortis can instantly appear following death based on the appearance of dead bodies during World War I and World War II. However, there remains no credible biological explanation for such a phenomenon, and it is more likely that rigor mortis set in with the typical delay during the wars, but the bodies had continued to be affected by explosions on the battlefield until it fully set in.

Leaves clasped within the hands of a body recovered from water, from Toskos and Byard, 2016

Consequently, it is highly unlikely that Lord Cronshaw’s fist remained tightly clasped around the pompon from the time just before his death until his discovery. Because all muscles relax after death, he would have dropped the pompon, but as long as it remained just beneath the palm of his hand, he would have re-grasped it when rigor mortis took effect. This is possible but somewhat unrealistic given the short period of time between his death and the discovery of his body. Nevertheless, the inclusion of this plot point illustrates Christie’s basic understanding of rigor mortis.

The next blog post will further explore the characters of Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite and describe medical conditions whose names are derived from the character of Harlequin.

Posted in Anatomy, Cocaine, Forensic science, Harley Quin, History, Mr. Satterthwaite, Physiology, Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories, The Harlequin Tea Set, The Mysterious Mr. Quin, True Crime Tagged Agatha Christie, Billie Carleton, Cardiotoxicity, Cocaine, Harley Quin, Mr. Satterthwaite, Rigor Mortis, The Affair at the Victory Ball, The Harlequin Tea Set, The Love Detectives, The Mysterious Mr. Quin

The Motley Few, Act II

Posted on March 21, 2021September 15, 2021 by Harley

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Coming of Mr. Quin and The Harlequin Tea Set and a minor plot spoiler for The Chocolate Box.**

The Harlequinade Continues

It is fitting that Christie drew upon her favorite theatrical characters and grandmother’s figurines for her first Poirot short story. In quick succession, she would publish her first Harley Quin story, The Coming of Mr. Quin (originally titled The Passing of Mr. Quin), in 1924. The story begins at a New Year’s Eve party attended by Mr. Satterthwaite, who was:

Sixty-two--a little bent, dried-up man with a peering face oddly elflike, and an intense and inordinate interest in other people’s lives. All his life, so to speak, he had sat in the front row of the stalls watching various dramas of human nature unfold before him. His role had always been that of the onlooker. Only now, with old age holding him in its clutch, he found himself increasingly critical of the drama submitted to him. He demanded now something a little out of the common.

Mr. Satterthwaite from Agatha Christie's Death on the Cards by Modiphius, 2019

Satterthwaite is shortly to have his wish granted but first wonders about a couple who are attending the party, the Portals. Alex Portal was of “usual good sound English stock,” but his wife, Eleanor, was Australian, and Satterthwaite particularly wondered why she dyed her light hair black. He also noted that Alex seemed to be afraid of her, although it was obvious he loved her.
The other party attendees recount the story of Derek Capel, who formerly owned the house in which they are gathered. Capel suddenly shot himself one day without an apparent reason. While discussing the possibility of the house being haunted, three loud knocks are heard at the front door, ushering the arrival of Mr. Harley Quin:

Framed in the doorway stood a man’s figure, tall and slender. To Mr. Satterthwaite, watching, he appeared by some curious effect of the stained glass above the door, to be dressed in every colour of the rainbow. Then, as he stepped forward, he showed himself to be a thin dark man dressed in motoring clothes.

Quin says his car has broken down and joins the party guests; “as he sat, some effect of the firelight threw a bar of shadow across his face which gave almost the impression of a mask.” Quin reveals that he had also met Derek Capel, and the group continue discussing his mysterious suicide. Mr. Satterthwaite notices that Eleanor Portal is now eavesdropping on the conversation and concludes that the entire evening was orchestrated by Mr. Quin: “he was at the heart of the mystery pulling the strings, making the puppets work.”
In due course, the full story of Capel’s death is recounted. He had announced his engagement but could not identify to whom, which led his companions to think that the woman was either currently or very recently married. Subsequently, the post arrived with newspapers and letters; Capel opened the newspaper, then went upstairs and shot himself. This had occurred around the time that the Appleton case was in the newspapers, wherein an “old curmudgeon” (with a young and very fair wife) had been poisoned with arsenic or strychnine. The wife was suspected, but there was not enough evidence to find her guilty at trial.

Mr. Quin guides the fellow men through the events. Capel was in love with Mrs. Appleton and had added strychnine to her husband’s decanter of port about a week before the elderly man’s death. Apparently an amateur toxicologist, Quin explains, “strychnine is not very soluble unless it is in the form of hydrochloride. The greater part of it, put into the port, would be taken in the last glass, perhaps a week after he left.” Reading in the newspaper that Appleton’s body was to be exhumed, Capel happens to see a police officer approaching the house from his window. The newspaper is a few days late because of a sizeable snowstorm, and Capel assumes that the officer has arrived to arrest him for murder, and he shoots himself. In actuality, the officer was returning a dog.

During his brief appearance at the party, Quin makes a special connection with Mr. Satterthwaite but departs once this solution is revealed. His parting words are:

I must recommend the Harlequinade to your attention. It is dying out nowadays--but it repays attention, I assure you. Its symbolism is a little difficult to follow--but the immortals are always immortal, you know.

After Quin leaves, Mr. Satterthwaite observes a scene between Mr. and Mrs. Portal. Alex asks her for forgiveness, now realizing the truth that she, as Mrs. Appleton, had not killed her husband. Harley Quin’s intercession on that evening had saved their marriage and her life, as she admits that was going to kill herself that night: “that man–that chance passerby, saved me.”

One of the locations where Mr. Satterthwaite happens to meet Harley Quin is a restaurant called Arlecchino, after the original Italian for “harlequin.”

The other stories in the collection follow a similar presentation, with Mr. Satterthwaite finding himself in a situation involving a pair of lovers in trouble–from a haunted window, mysterious disappearances, hidden identities, and death. The stories are not traditional Christie mysteries with an overt crime that requires solving from a brilliant detective but rather puzzling tales and circumstances that Harley Quin clarifies by aiding Mr. Satterthwaite in his ratiocination. The review in the New York Times Book Review stated, “To call the tales in this collection detective stories would be misleading. For all of them deal with mystery and some of them with crime, they are, nevertheless, more like fairy tales.”

Although the collection of stories was well-reviewed, true to his nature, Harley Quin essentially disappeared from Christie’s subsequent literary output. The character appeared in just two more stories, which were included in other collections: The Love Detectives and The Harlequin Tea Set. Nevertheless, Harley Quin is a unique and memorable character among all the characters created by Christie, and as he was beloved by her, these stories are highly recommended.

The Harlequin-inspired stories serve to almost bookend Agatha Christie’s career as the first Poirot (The Affair at the Victory Ball) and last ever (The Harlequin Tea Set) published short stories. The Passing of Mr. Quinn was the first British film adaptation of one of Christie’s works.

The Harlequin Tea Set

The final story to feature Harley Quin, The Harlequin Tea Set, was also the last story of Christie’s to be published, in 1971. In the story, Mr. Satterthwaite is waylaid by car troubles on his way to visit acquaintances in the country. He passes the time at The Harlequin Cafe and reflects on his old friend, Harley Quin,

It was the word “harlequin” of course which had remained fixed in Mr. Satterthwaite’s mind, although just far enough back in his mind so that it had been difficult to recall it. The gay colours. The harlequin colours. And he had thought, wondered, had the absurd but exciting idea that in some way here was a call to him. To him specially. Here, perhaps, eating a meal or purchasing cups and saucers might be his own old friend, Mr. Harley Quin. How many years was it since he had last seen Mr. Quin? A large number of years. Was it the day he had seen Mr. Quin walking away from him down a country lane, Lovers’ Lane they had called it? He had always expected to see Mr. Quin again, once a year at least. Possibly twice a year. But no. That had not happened.

First US edition of The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1997

He admits to himself that he misses Mr. Quin and hopes that he shows up because when he did, it “was always an announcement that something was going to happen.” A very short time later, Mr. Quin indeed arrives, the sunlight creating a “festoon of colours” from his plain black suit. The two friends quickly become reacquainted, and Mr. Satterthwaite describes the family of Tom Addison, to whom he is on his way to visit.

The somewhat-complicated Addison family tree

It has been many years since Satterthwaite had last seen his friend, and Tom’s family has changed in the intervening time. Tom and his late wife had two daughters: Lily, who was Satterthwaite’s goddaughter, and Maria, who died during childbirth. Lily had also died in a car accident, leaving behind a son, Roland. Roland’s father Simon remarried a woman named Beryl, who had a young son named Timothy. Timothy and Roland are now young men in their early 20s and live with their family in a country home named Doverton Kingsbourne, where Satterthwaite is traveling.

Coincidentally, Beryl arrives at The Harlequin Cafe to buy some of the harlequin teacups to replace some that had broken earlier in the day. Satterthwaite introduces himself and Harley Quin, who is also invited to join the family for tea, but he declines as he is “only passing by.” Quin departs just as Satterthwaite’s car is returned, providing an enigmatic word that he thinks will be of use to Satterthwaite: Daltonism.

Upon arriving at Doverton Kingsbourne, Satterthwaite is reminded of the meaning behind the word when he sees his old friend Tom Addison wearing one red and one green slipper, but the reader is provided no additional detail as to the condition. Satterthwaite sees Timothy and Roland for the first time in many years and remarks to himself that Timothy looks more like Lily than her biological son Roland. Each attendee of the gathering has a different color tea cup; Timothy has a red cup, while Roland has a yellow cup.

While he watches the family and especially Beryl, Satterthwaite increasingly feels as if something important is going to happen, as portended by his meeting Harley Quin earlier that day. Beryl brushes Timothy’s red cup off the table, shattering it, and she replaces it with a pale blue cup next to Tom’s pipe. When Timothy’s cousin Inez accuses him of drinking from her cup, since it is now a blue cup instead of a red one, Timothy claims it must be his cup because it is right where he left it by the pipe. He raises the cup to drink from it when suddenly the entire situation is made clear to Satterthwaite, who quickly tells Timothy not to drink from the cup.

An Ishihara color test plate. Readers with normal vision will see the number "74," readers with red-green colorblindess will read the number "21," and readers with total colorblindness may read no numbers.

Satterthwaite reveals that Daltonism refers to red-green colorblindness and that Timothy is afflicted by this condition, which therefore made him unable to discern between the two teacups. Satterthwaite also realizes Timothy has inherited his colorblindness from his grandfather Tom (with his mismatched slippers). He surmises that Beryl exchanged the identity of her son with Roland, the heir to Doverton Kingsbourne, when both boys were young in order to ensure her son would inherit Tom’s estate. Threatened with confrontation, Beryl flees.

Mr. Satterthwaite receives a note from Harley Quin, congratulating him on his success in preventing a murder, but the two friends are never to meet again in the fictional works of Agatha Christie.

Daltonism

Daltonism is another term for protanopia, which is colorblindness resulting from insensitivity to red light, causing confusion of greens, reds, and yellows. This pattern of colorblindness is caused by alterations in the proteins responsible for the discernment of light wavelengths due to gene mutations on the X chromosome. Because women have two X chromosomes, they are typically only carriers of the condition, and it is present in male relatives with one X chromosome. Women can be affected by colorblindness due to mutations in other genes not on the X chromosome, but this is very rare. It is also possible that a woman may inherit mutated X chromosomes from both parents (an affected father and a carrier mother), but this is also rare.

The name Daltonism was applied to this condition because the chemist John Dalton provided the first written account of the affliction suffered by him and his brother in 1798. The inheritance pattern of red-green colorblindness was identified in the late 1960s, and Agatha Christie incorporated this recent scientific discovery into one of her mysteries, as she had done throughout her career. Christie also used colorblindness as a clue in a Hercule Poirot short story, The Chocolate Box, published in 1924.

X-linked recessive inheritance pattern

Harlequin Medical Disorders

While there are no known forensic science or criminology principles directly related to the Harlequinade, there are two rare but noteworthy skin disorders (and a third that is less uncommon) whose names are at least partially derived from the character of Harlequin.

Harlequin color change, or unilateral erythema

Harlequin color change, or unilateral erythema, is a harmless condition observed in approximately 10% of newborn babies and occurs when half of the baby’s skin exhibits a red color with no change in the other half. The color change is well demarcated, as with a harlequin costume that is half red and half white. Scientists speculate that the condition results from a temporary imbalance of the blood vessels in the skin that presents in newborn babies because their hypothalamus is continuing to develop. The hypothalamus is the body’s homeostatic center, regulating body temperature and many other autonomic (or involuntary) functions.

Another minimally complicated condition — both from scientific and quality-of-life perspectives — is harlequin syndrome. Like the harlequin color change just described, harlequin syndrome produces unilateral flushing and sweating in the affected person; one-half of the body will appear red while the other half is unchanged. This is a relatively rare condition, and no definitive cause has been identified.
Based on case reports, it is hypothesized that the condition results from damage to nerve bundles in the head and neck, possibly due to trauma, autoimmune conditions, tumors, or strokes. Once these nerve bundles are damaged, their communication with half of the body is reduced or eliminated while they maintain normal communication with the other half. Consequently, in response to a stimulus such as increased body temperature, the half of the body with nervous communication intact will flush and sweat, and the other half of the body will remain unaffected.

Harlequin syndrome may be uncomfortable and embarrassing but is not life threatening, and many patients require no treatment. In extreme or complicated cases, such as those involving a tumor, surgery may be performed to remove the tumor. If the damaged nerve bundle can be identified, it can be removed via a surgical procedure called sympathectomy or treated with botulinum toxin. With these treatments, all signaling from the nerve bundles would be disrupted, so in response to an increase in body temperature, neither side of the body would flush or sweat.

Botulinum toxin (common brand name: Botox) is produced by Clostridium botulinum and is used medically to block nerve signalling for the treatment of wrinkles, excessive sweating, and migraine headaches. It also causes the foodborne illness, botulism, which can be fatal.

The other rare and much more severe medical condition with a name inspired by the Harlequinade is harlequin-type ichthyosis. This extremely rare genetic disease is almost always fatal, with most historical cases surviving no more than two days after birth. The condition is characterized by the hardening of the outer layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, which forms armor-like and diamond-shaped plates. Because the outer layer of skin is so thick and rigid, it distorts the facial features and forms red fissures in the skin between the hard plates. This appearance led to its appellation of “harlequin-type.”

“Ichthyosis” literally means “fish skin condition.”

In the United States, the incidence of harlequin-type ichthyosis is about 1 in 500,000 live births. The condition is inherited through an autosomal recessive pattern, which is similar to the X-linked recessive inheritance pattern of Daltonism described previously, so both parents need to have one affected copy of the gene responsible. Through familial studies, researchers have identified a mutation in the ABCA12 gene that results in the deadly skin disease.

Autosomal recessive inheritance pattern

The ABCA12 protein is a member of the ATP-binding cassette (abbreviated ABC) transporter protein family; these channels are embedded in the phospholipid bilayer (or outer membrane) of cells and use energy from ATP (the molecule also involved with muscle contraction) to transport lipid (or fatty) molecules across the membrane. Because the lipids move from an area of lower concentration to an area of higher concentration (in other words, against a concentration gradient), this transport requires an input of energy from ATP. In the epidermal cells found in the skin, these lipid molecules are produced in organelles called lamellar granules. Organelles are membrane-bound areas within a cell that perform specialized functions; for example, the nucleus is the organelle that contains its genetic material.

The function of the ABCA12 protein in healthy skin (A) and harlequin-type ichthyosis (B), from Hovnanian 2005

The molecules produced and exported by the lamellar granules are used in the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin, to maintain the physical barrier of the skin as well as promote the natural sloughing off of skin cells and preservation of the layers of skin underneath. In harlequin-type ichthyosis, the genetic variations in the ABCA12 gene produce a transporter protein that is incomplete or misshapen and therefore the normal cellular functions of the stratum corneum are severely compromised. This is called a loss-of-function mutation.
The skin is an integral part of the body’s innate immune system because it provides a powerful physical barrier to insults from pathogens like bacteria and viruses, environmental contamination, and chemical effects. In any condition where the skin’s normal function is impaired, the individual is at a higher risk of infection. In harlequin-type ichthyosis, the fissuring of skin between the hard plates can allow for invasion by bacteria and viruses, leading to systemic infections that can be deadly. There is also some evidence that the production of immune factors within the lamellar granules is impaired, further compromising the immune system.

Additionally, the physical constriction resulting from the skin’s rigidity leads to difficulties with feeding, as an infant would not be able to move her lips properly to suckle, and with breathing because the skin around the chest is too tight to allow for adequate inhalation and exhalation. Infants with this condition are immediately treated in the neonatal intensive care unit to support feeding and breathing and prevent infection.

Harlequin-type ichthyosis is primarily treated with retinoids, which are vitamin A derivatives that promote the sloughing off of the hardened skin scales and also reduce the formation of new scales. The skin barrier is supported through applying lotions and emollients, especially those with small amounts of salt, urea, or glycerol. Often, the hardened scales on the fingers need to be removed surgically to prevent death of the tissue from constricted blood flow. Antibiotics are used to prevent or treat bacterial infections. With modern intensive treatment, babies born with this once-fatal condition can survive to early adulthood. Because this disease is so rare and treatments continue to improve, it is not yet known how much survival has increased, but the future holds promise for individuals with harlequin-type ichthyosis.

Constriction of the fingers in harlequin-type ichthyosis, from Glick et al, 2017

Repaying Attention

The naming of these medical conditions demonstrates the continued prevalence of the character of Harlequin in Western society. Of course, this author would be remiss if they did not mention the Detective Comics character also named Harley Quinn (with 2 n’s), created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm as a female sidekick to the Joker. Although she has no relation to the work of Agatha Christie, the author would likely be pleased that the “Happy go lucky” Harlequin remains relevant for a new generation.

Posted in Anatomy, Dermatology, Genetic Diseases, Harley Quin, Mr. Satterthwaite, Neurology, Physiology, Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories, Strychnine, The Harlequin Tea Set, The Mysterious Mr. Quin Tagged Agatha Christie, Colorblindness, Daltonism, Dermatology, Genetic diseases, Harlequin color change, Harlequin skin change, Harlequin-type ichthyosis, Harley Quin, Mr. Satterthwaite, Neurology, The Harlequin Tea Set, The Mysterious Mr. Quin

Tuesday Night Fever

Posted on September 5, 2020April 30, 2021 by Harley

**Contains major plot spoilers for Ingots of Gold, The Thumb Mark of St. Peter, and The Blue Geranium and minor plot spoilers for The Companion and The Big Four.**

“Human nature is much the same everywhere, and, of course, one has opportunities of observing it at closer quarters in a village.”

Miss Jane Marple

An Acidulated Spinster

Although the first full-length novel with Miss Jane Marple as the detective was published in 1930 (Murder at the Vicarage), the character initially appeared in print in a series of 6 short stories Christie wrote for a magazine in 1928. In 1932, an additional 6 stories were added, and the compilation was published as The Thirteen Problems (UK) or The Tuesday Club Murders (US).
In her Autobiography, Christie reflects,

The original title was Thirteen at Dinner, which was used the following year for a different Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot and alternatively titled Lord Edgware Dies.

Murder at the Vicarage was published in 1930, but I cannot remember where, when or how I wrote it, why I came to write it, or even what suggested to me that I should select a new character—Miss Marple—to act as the sleuth in the story. Certainly at the time I had no intention of continuing her for the rest of my life. I did not know that she was to become a rival to Hercule Poirot.

She continues,

I think it is possible that Miss Marple arose from the pleasure I had taken in portraying Dr. Sheppard’s sister in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. She had been my favourite character in the book—an acidulated spinster, full of curiosity, knowing everything, hearing everything: the complete detective service in the home.

A Rag-Tag Group

The Thirteen Problems is a collection of short stories, as told by a group of companions gathered in the fictional village of St. Mary Mead. In addition to Miss Marple, the members of the “Tuesday Night Club” include Raymond West, Marple’s nephew and a novelist; Joyce Lempriere, a painter who is romantically involved with Raymond; Mr. Pettigrew, a local solicitor; Henry Clithering, former commissioner of Scotland Yard; and Dr. Pender, an elderly clergyman. With the addition of the last 6 stories, the characters of Major and Dolly Bantry were added, and they would be featured in subsequent Marple novels.
The stories recounted by the companions are tales of poisoning, mysterious rituals, theft, murder, blank wills, and espionage — all Christie mainstays. In each of the stories, Miss Marple surprises the others by arriving at the solutions to the mysteries by drawing parallels to her observations of life in St. Mary Mead. In Ingots of Gold, Miss Marple points out that one of the offenders was pretending to be a gardener, which is obvious to her as gardeners do not work on Whit Monday, and in The Companion, Miss Marple recalls the story of a Mrs. Trout, “only a person–not a very nice person–in the village”:

Source: Collins Crime Club

I must confess it does remind me, just a little, of old Mrs. Trout. She drew the old age pension, you know, for three old women who were dead, in different parishes… It’s just Mrs. Trout over again. Mrs. Trout was very good at red herrings, but she met her match in me.

This blog post will focus on two stories within the collection: The Thumb Mark of St. Peter and The Blue Geranium. Both stories involve poisoning and have been mimicked or reproduced in some interesting true crime cases.

St. Peter's Thumb

The Thumb Mark of St. Peter marks Miss Marple’s contribution of a mystery story to the Tuesday Night Club. She recounts a story involving her niece, Mabel, whose husband Geoffrey suddenly dies. Rumors circulate that Mabel has poisoned her husband, whom a doctor concludes to have died from eating poisoned mushrooms. Mabel reveals that she had bought arsenic at the chemist’s the morning of her husband’s death with the intention of poisoning herself. The household staff report that in the evening, Geoffrey was in great agony and unable to swallow; he could only speak in a garbled voice, and he rambled about “a heap of fish”.

Through the persistence of Miss Marple in her investigation, the husband’s body is exhumed and tested for poisoning, but “there was nothing to show by what means [the] deceased had come to his death.” Miss Marple speaks with the pathologist, who concedes that the death may have been caused by a strong vegetable alkaloid. Deep in contemplation, she stumbles upon a fish monger’s shop, which draws her mind back to the “heap of fish”. She reinterviews the cook, who states that Geoffrey had said “pile” rather than “heap” and referred to a specific fish beginning with the letter “C”. Miss Marple consults an index of drugs and discovers the compound pilocarpine, which could be easily misconstrued as a “pile of carp” or “heap of fish”.

Given the use of pilocarpine as an antidote to atropine poisoning, Miss Marple ascertains that the husband’s elderly father had actually committed the murder by emptying his bottle of eye drops (containing atropine sulfate) into his son’s water glass. When confronted, the old man confesses his crime, which he did to prevent Geoffrey from institutionalizing him. At the conclusion of her story, Sir Henry Clithering tells Miss Marple, “I shall recommend Scotland Yard to come to you for advice.”

To Cut the Thread of Life

Atropine is a plant alkaloid derived from Atropa belladonna, or deadly nightshade, and is named after Atropis, one of the three fates in Greek mythology whose role was to cut the thread of life. The name “belladonna” (meaning “beautiful lady” in Italian) originates from the use of the juice of the berries by women to dilate their pupils in order to enhance their attractiveness. Although excessive use can cause blurred vision and blindness, this function of atropine is still used in ophthalmology to this day to allow for eye examinations and relieve pressure buildup.

Atropa belladonna

In The Big Four, Hercule Poitrot uses belladonna in his eyes to disguise himself as his “brother”, Achille Poirot, an invention to elude defeat by the novel’s villains.

Due to its chemical structure, atropine is not highly water soluble; therefore, a salt form is generally used in medications, such as the atropine sulfate found in the elderly father’s eyedrops in The Thumb Mark of St. Peter. As discussed in Dressed to the Strychnines, Act II, salts are formed by the ionic pairing of compounds rather than the sharing of electrons in covalent bonds. Consequently, there is no change to the action of atropine in its salt form, rather it is more easily absorbed across mucous membranes and the gastrointestinal tract.

Once in the bloodstream–and similar to strychnine–atropine acts as an antagonist to the neurotransmitter receptors of acetylcholine, which are also called muscarinic receptors. Acetylcholine is the primary neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system, and its signaling modulates the production of bodily fluids such as mucus in the upper gastrointestinal tract, lungs, heart, and sweat glands. When atropine antagonizes the muscarinic receptors, the production of fluids diminishes; another medicinal use of atropine sulfate is to decrease mucous secretions in the bronchioles of the lungs prior to surgeries to prevent any blocking of the airway.

Action of antagonists and agonists

The use of atropine sulfate in eyedrops may treat a condition called miosis, which is excessive constriction of the pupils, or anterior uveitis, which is inflammation of the uvea or iris. Christie does not note the specific ophthalmologic malady suffered by the father in The Thumb Mark of St. Peter, but by distilling atropine in the eye, the muscles that control the iris are paralyzed, dilating the pupil and relieving the build-up of pressure. By keeping the dose administered low, the effect of blurred vision is temporary, though the dilation of the pupils may persist for several days.

Anatomy of the heart, including the sinoatrial node

When atropine is ingested in large amounts (approximately 10 to 100mg, depending on the form), its effects are lethal because it quickly inhibits the signaling of the parasympathetic nervous system to the heart. Typically, acetylcholine released by the parasympathetic nervous system via signaling through the vagus nerve acts on the sinoatrial node of the heart, which controls the heart rate. In the presence of acetylcholine, the heart rate is slowed to less than 100bpm. When acted upon by the antagonist atropine, the heart no longer receives the signals to slow its rate of beating. This increase in heart rate leads to an increase in respiratory rate, coupled with a decrease in fluid secretions. The condition is accompanied by hallucinations, muscle convulsions, and coma, and can lead to death.

The poison scopolamine has similar effects as atropine and was the poison allegedly used by Dr. Hawley Crippen to dispatch his wife in a well-known historical true crime. Christie also included scopolamine as a murder weapon in her first play, Black Coffee.

A Pile of Carp

Like atropine, pilocarpine is a plant alkaloid, and it is derived from the leaves of Pilocarpus pinnatifolius. It acts in direct opposition to atropine, as it is an agonist of the same receptors. When it binds to acetylcholine receptors, it exerts the same effect as the neurotransmitter, increasing mucous secretion and slowing the heartbeat. Coincidentally, pilocarpine is also used medically in the form of eyedrops to treat glaucoma.
Because of their opposing actions, either pilocarpine or atropine can be used as an antidote to poisoning with the other compound. As in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Christie uses her specialized knowledge from her time in the dispensary to create a clever poisoning mystery.

Source: Koehler's Medizinal Pflanzen (1883-1914)

Meanwhile in True Crime...

In what may be the true crime case that was most directly inspired by a work of Christie’s, an elderly French couple was killed by their nephew, who had added atropine from a bottle of eyedrops to a bottle of wine he gave the couple. The nephew, Roland Roussel, knew his aunt and uncle did not typically consume alcohol and assumed that they would share the wine with a woman who often visited and whom he blamed for the death of his mother. Unfortunately, the aunt and uncle decided to drink the bottle of wine on Christmas Day. The uncle died, and the aunt was comatose.

A neighbor discovered the couple, and doctors first speculated that food-borne illness was to blame. A few days later, the couple’s son-in-law and a carpenter went to the house to place the uncle’s body in a coffin. As there was still wine remaining in the bottle, both men drank a small amount and were rendered unconscious. They received proper medical treatment, and the wine was tested for contaminants, revealing the addition of atropine to the bottle. With this major clue, investigators directed their attention to Roland Roussel. Upon searching his apartment, they discovered a copy of The Thirteen Problems with certain passages in The Thumb Mark of St. Peter underlined. No further information about the fate of Roussel has been published.

In a case of attempted murder, Paul Agutter, a biology lecturer at Edinburgh University, added atropine to a bottle of tonic water that he used to make his wife a gin and tonic. She complained of the bitter taste and only drank a small amount, but she ingested enough of the poison to become seriously ill. So elaborate was the husband’s plan that he added atropine to multiple bottles of tonic water and returned them to the shelf of a local supermarket. Although each of these bottles had smaller quantities than the bottle used for Mrs. Agutter’s drink, 8 people were hospitalized after consuming tonic water purchased from the supermarket.
Closed-circuit television in the market captured Agutter placing the bottles on the shelf, and an employee also observed him doing so. Agutter’s attempt to manipulate the authorities into suspecting that a lunatic was poisoning bottles of tonic water and that his wife just happened to be a victim was not successful; he served 7 years in prison for attempted murder. The wife recovered.

Paul Agutter and the "Safeway Poisoning"

Blue Flowers

Another story in The Thirteen Problems also involves poisoning; however, the toxin in this instance is cyanide. In The Blue Geranium, Dolly Bantry shares what she considers a supernatural tale with Miss Marple and some other members of the Tuesday Night Club. The tale centers around the wife of family friend George Pritchard, who is never given a Christian name. Mrs. Pritchard is a difficult, demanding woman, with an unspecified medical condition that renders her somewhat disabled. A series of nurses live with the couple to care for Mrs. Pritchard, but each is dismissed after a short time.
Mrs. Pritchard is also partial to spiritual mediums. One of the more competent nurses, Nurse Copling, arranges for a visit from Zarida, Psychic Reader of the Future. Following the visit, Mrs. Pritchard is distraught, smelling frequently from her bottle of smelling salts. She reports that Zarida says there is evil and danger present in the house. More specifically, the psychic tells Mrs. Pritchard, “Blue flowers are fatal to you–remember that.” Two days later, Mrs. Pritchard receives a letter from Zarida that states,

I have seen the future. Be warned before it is too late. Beware of the Full Moon. The Blue Primrose means Warning; the Blue Hollyhock means Danger; the Blue Geranium means Death…

The morning after the next Full Moon, which is a few days later, Mrs. Pritchard rings her bell violently to report that one of the pink primroses illustrated on her wallpaper had turned blue. Before the next Full Moon, Mrs. Pritchard has her husband and nurse both study the wallpaper and lock the door to her room. The next morning, one of the hollyhocks on the wallpaper has turned blue. Although Nurse Copling is alarmed and asks George to move Mrs. Pritchard from the house, he retorts, “If all the flowers on that damned wall turned into blue devils it couldn’t kill anyone!”

The morning after the following Full Moon, there is no bell ringing heard from Mrs. Pritchard’s room. George chisels the door open to discover Mrs. Pritchard’s lifeless body in bed. She has dropped her bottle of smelling salts on the bed, and one of the pink geraniums on the wallpaper has turned blue. There is a slight smell of gas in her room but not enough to have led to death. Although there is suspicion that George murdered his wife, there is no indication following her autopsy that there was any foul play. It is generally accepted that the woman died of fright.
Of course, Miss Marple does not accept this explanation. She states,

Well, if I did [wish to kill someone], I shouldn’t be at all satisfied to trust to fright. I know one reads of people dying of it, but it seems a very uncertain sort of thing, and the most nervous people are far more brave than one really thinks they are. I should like something definite and certain, and make a thoroughly good plan about it.

The reassurance that pink flowers had turned blue (rather than yellow flowers) further cements her idea. She reveals that the culprit is Nurse Copling, and the changing colors of the flowers on the wallpaper was accomplished through the use of litmus paper, which nurses often carry.

Litmus paper contains the molecule 7-hydroxyphenoxazone, a weak acid which changes to a blue color at an alkaline (basic) pH of 8.3 or higher. When a strong base is added, the molecule donates a hydrogen atom, and the resulting conjugate base has a blue color.

Miss Marple reveals that Nurse Copling has replaced Mrs. Pritchard’s smelling salts with potassium cyanide, which is visually indistinguishable. Confident that Mrs. Pritchard would smell at them when faced with the blue flowers, Nurse Copling stages the visit from Zarida and a follow-up letter to distress the poor woman. The strong ammonia fumes from the smelling salts, which are basic or alkaline, would cause the litmus paper that Nurse Copling had pasted on top of the flower wallpaper to turn blue. While George Pritchard calls for a doctor, the nurse quickly substitutes the cyanide bottle with standard smelling salts and turns on the gas a small amount to hide the scent of bitter almonds typical of cyanide. Miss Marple speculates that Nurse Copling has fallen in love with George Pritchard, although he does not return her affections.
Because cyanide is prevalent throughout Christie’s work, an in-depth discussion of this poison will be reserved for a future post. Briefly, cyanide is rapidly converted into hydrogen cyanide in the gastrointestinal tract, and this form is readily absorbed into the bloodstream. Cyanide displaces oxygen in hemoglobin molecules, which serve to transport oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. With this method of transportation, cyanide can be delivered to cells in various body systems.

Cytochrome c oxidase

Once in the cell, cyanide binds to the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase; this enzyme catalyzes the final step of oxidative phosphorylation (or aerobic metabolism) in the mitochondria. Cyanide is an antagonist to cytochrome c oxidase; after it binds, the chemical reactions responsible for generating cellular energy stop, resulting in cell death. Cyanide can kill within minutes to hours due to this widespread cell death.

The Auburn Cyanide Murders of 1986

Although this author was unable to locate any true crime cases that involved the substitution of smelling salts with potassium cyanide, there are several cases where cyanide has been added to otherwise safe medications. Following the Chicago Tylenol cyanide poisonings in 1982, Bruce Nickell and Susan Snow were killed by Excedrin capsules poisoned with cyanide in Washington state.

Although Bruce’s death was first, it was not until after Susan died that his death was attributed to cyanide poisoning. Susan was 40 years old and suffered from headaches but was otherwise healthy. On the morning of 11 Jun 1986, Susan took two capsules of Extra-Strength Excedrin and was discovered collapsed in the bathroom a short time later by her daughter. She was clinging to life but died a short time later at the hospital.
During Susan’s autopsy, the Assistant Medical Examiner smelled the distinctive bitter almond smell that accompanies cyanide. A blood test confirmed that Susan had died from acute cyanide poisoning. Investigators were baffled as to the source, until Susan’s twin sister reached for some Excedrin on the day of Susan’s funeral. She noted to investigators that Susan usually purchased Excedrin tablets, and it was unusual for her to have Excedrin gel capsules. Tests of the remaining capsules in Susan’s bottle of Excedrin showed that three more capsules contained lethal quantities of cyanide.

Susan Snow

The ability to smell cyanide is a genetic trait, which has been shown to be prevalent in approximately 50% of people.

The testing of Excedrin for cyanide expanded to include other bottles from the same lot number as Susan’s. An additional tainted bottle was discovered at a supermarket in Kent, Washington, and Bristol-Myers, the manufacturer of Excedrin, issued a recall for all bottles of Extra-Strength Excedrin in the Seattle, Washington area. Several pharmaceutical companies banded together to offer a $300,000 reward for the apprehension of the person responsible for poisoning the capsules.

Once this information about the tainted Excedrin was publicized, 42-year-old Stella Nickell phoned authorities, stating that her husband Bruce had recently died after taking four Excedrin capsules from a bottle with the same lot number that was the target of the recall. Bruce was 52 years old and a heavy smoker, and doctors had concluded he died from complications related to emphysema. With the new information from Susan Snow’s death, investigators tested Bruce’s body for traces of cyanide, which were indeed present.
Bristol-Myers responded by recalling all bottles of Excedrin capsules in the United States, quickly followed by a recall of all of the company’s nonprescription capsule medications. A few days later, investigators discovered a cyanide-tainted bottle of Anacin-3, an Excedrin competitor, and Washington state issued a 90-day ban on the sale of all nonprescription capsule medications.

Bruce and Stella Nickell

The contaminated medications were sent to the FBI Crime Lab in Washington, D.C., for examination. The cyanide salt that had been added to the medications contained small granules of a green substance. Additional testing showed that the green substance was the commercial product Algae Destroyer, which is used to clean home aquariums. Investigators surmised that the culprit must have used a container to crush or mix the cyanide that had been previously used to crush Algae Destroyer tablets.
Around the same time, investigators were focusing on Stella Nickell. In addition to owning several tropical fish aquariums, the widow had inherited a total of $175,000 from Bruce’s multiple life insurance policies. Document examiners at the FBI had determined that Bruce’s signature had been forged on the applications, and Stella inherited an additional $100,000 now that her husband’s death was determined to have been accidental. Furthermore, Stella had two tainted Excedrin bottles out of the total of five that had surfaced throughout the country, and she initially refused to undergo a polygraph examination, which she subsequently failed.

The clues continued to accumulate. Stella’s 27-year-old daughter Cindy approached authorities, recalling that her mother told her several times that she wanted to kill Bruce as she had become bored in the relationship. She admitted to trying to kill him with foxglove, after which he was sick for a few days and then recovered. Cindy also stated her mother had researched poisons at the library.

Foxglove is a source of the poison digitalis, which Christie used in several novels and stories including Appointment with Death, Postern of Fate, and The Herb of Death in The Thirteen Problems.

Records from the Auburn Public Library were subpoenaed, and the FBI detected Stella Nickell’s fingerprints on pages related to cyanide in books such as Deadly Harvest. This evidence, along with Stella’s financial gain, Cindy’s testimony, and the manager of a tropical fish store positively identifying Stella as a purchaser of Algae Destroyer, led investigators to arrest Stella for the double murder in December 1987.
Stella was charged with product tampering that resulted in the deaths of Bruce Nickell and Susan Snow under the 1983 Federal Anti-Tampering Law, which was a result of the Chicago Tylenol cyanide poisonings. Jurors found her guilty, and she received two life sentences. Her current release date is 10 Jul 2040, when she will be 97 years old.

Posted in Atropine, Cyanide, Miss Marple, Pilocarpine, Poison, The Thirteen Problems, Toxicology, True Crime Tagged Agatha Christie, Atropine, Cyanide, Miss Marple, Pilocarpine, Poison, St. Mary Mead, The Blue Geranium, The Thirteen Problems, The Thumb Mark of St. Peter, The Tuesday Club Murders

Dressed to the Strychnines, Act II

Posted on May 25, 2018April 30, 2021 by Harley

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and minor plot spoilers for Bleak House by Charles Dickens and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.**

See the previous post, Dressed to the Strychnines: Act I, for a summary of the creation of Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, as well as a synopsis of the book. The post you are reading will provide an in-depth description of strychnine poisoning in the context of Christie’s first novel.

The Herb of Death

The description of the agonizing death of Emily Inglethorp concludes:
A final convulsion lifted her head from the bed, until she appeared to rest upon her head and her heels, with her body arched in an extraordinary way.
This characteristic effect immediately led doctors (probably including Lawrence Cavendish, though he was loathe to admit) to suspect strychnine poisoning caused Mrs. Inglethorp’s death. Strychnine would appear in five of Agatha Christie’s novels and five short stories altogether, dispatching a total of five characters.

Chemical structure of strychnine (Source: National Library of Medicine)

Strychnine is derived from plants in the genus Strychnos, and the compound is an alkaloid without any odor but with a very bitter taste. Its crystals are long, thin, and colorless, and they are poorly soluble in water. It takes nearly 7 liters of water to dissolve 1 gram, but as a salt its solubility is improved without impacting toxicity. Historically, the poison was used as a pesticide or to raise blood pressure but was not used medically at the time Styles was written.

Absorption and Metabolism

In the human body, strychnine is absorbed across the small intestine following ingestion. Its toxic effects are due to its propensity to bind to glycine receptors in the central nervous system (CNS), which prevents the typical intercellular communication in which glycine participates. In between neurons, the functional cells of the CNS, are small gulfs referred to as synapses, which allow for the transfer of chemical messages (neurotransmitters). Chemicals released from the tail end (axon) of one neuron travel across the synapse to interact with a second, downstream neuron through specific receptors. One of these neurotransmitters, glycine, counteracts the effects of acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter released when muscle cells are activated. Glycine acts like a mute on a trumpet; much greater activation of the upstream neurons by acetylcholine would be needed to stimulate muscle contraction in the presence of glycine.

Strychnine has a greater affinity than naturally produced glycine for the glycine receptor; it is 300% more energetically favorable for strychnine to bind with the glycine receptor compared with a similar amount of glycine. When strychnine replaces glycine, the muted trumpet referenced above loses its mute and will respond at full strength to the slightest stimulus. In this case, strychnine is an antagonist of the glycine receptor; it binds to the receptor instead of glycine but induces no response in the cell. (An agonist is a chemical that would bind instead of the typical chemical that binds to the receptor and induces the typical response.) Consequently, strychnine poisoning causes an uncontrolled sustaining of muscle contraction.

Action of antagonists and agonists

Deadly Effects

In humans the muscles on the back of the body (dorsal side) tend to be stronger than on the front of the body (ventral side), so strychnine’s ability to prevent the inhibition of muscle contraction results in a violent arching of the back, as described for Emily Inglethorp. Other muscle spasming patterns may be observed, depending on the location of neurons affected by strychnine. Because strychnine affects motor neurons, other cells in the CNS would function normally after poisoning, and the victim would be completely conscious and aware during the muscle spasming.
Within 15 to 30 minutes after exposure to strychnine (typically through ingestion via food or drink), the poisoning symptoms begin to manifest as muscle tingling and twitching, which is quickly followed by nausea and vomiting. The muscle twitching intensifies into violent muscle spasms interrupted by short periods of relaxation. The direct cause of death is often asphyxiation; the violent contraction of the muscles in the chest surrounding the respiratory system suffocates the unfortunate soul.

Effect of strychnine poisoning on the human body

There is no specific antidote for strychnine, but if administered quickly enough, muscle relaxers and anticonvulsant drugs may stave off death. Modern treatment would consist of diazepam (Valium) and artificial respiration to maintain breathing while minimizing muscle contractions. Activated charcoal may also be administered by mouth to prevent further absorption through the gastrointestinal tract. In A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie, author Kathryn Harkup recounts a presentation at the French Academy of Medicine in 1831, where pharmacist P. F. Touery swallowed 10 times the lethal dose of strychnine mixed with charcoal. He subsequently developed no symptoms of strychnine poisoning.

Partners in Crime

Another confounding factor in The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the administration of a so-called “narcotic” to Mrs. Inglethorp by Mary Cavendish. Christie never reveals which specific narcotic was added to Mrs. Inglethorp’s cocoa, but it may very well be morphine as it was given to induce sleep.
Worth noting in this discussion of Styles is the fact that a common side effect of morphine is constipation, which results from diminishing muscle contractions along the gastrointestinal tract. This decrease in smooth muscle contractions may delay the transit of foodstuffs from the stomach into the small intestine by up to 12 hours. Since strychnine is absorbed in the small intestine rather than the stomach, a delay in absorption caused by the morphine in her cocoa would have delayed Mrs. Inglethorp’s symptoms of strychnine poisoning.

The inventor of morphine, Dr. Friedrich Sertuerner, gave it the name morphium after Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep. Morphine is an opioid and is typically used as an analgesic. It is highly addictive and exerts the same effects as heroin in the body. Because heroin and morphine feature more prominently in other Christie stories, greater detail of their physiological effects will be discussed in future posts.

Potassium bromide was used so frequently as a sedative at the turn of the century that the term “bromide” became synonymous with a dull person or a boring platitude.

Of course, the ingenious and almost undetected administration of strychnine by the perpetrators was accomplished by simply manipulating the tonics that Mrs. Inglethorp already took on a regular basis. She was in the habit of taking potassium bromide powders as a sedative and also took a tonic that contained strychnine every night. In the 1920s, tonics containing small quantities of strychnine were sold over the counter and purported to have stimulative effects, increasing alertness and activity; however, there is no evidence that strychnine acts as a stimulant. The whole bottle of Mrs. Inglethorp’s tonic would contain a lethal dose of strychnine, but she only took a small amount every night with no ill effects. The metabolic half-life within the human body is about 10 hours, meaning that the concentration of strychnine present in the body at a specific time will be decreased by 50% when measured at 10 hours afterwards, so there would be no additive effects taking small doses every 24 hours for a typical adult.

As mentioned previously, strychnine is poorly soluble in water and is consequently used in a salt form, such as strychnine sulfate. Unlike other molecular compounds, the “bonds” that hold together a salt are ionic charges, rather than shared electrons. In general, molecules will be prone to form compounds that are in the lowest energy state possible. In a solution in which a strychnine salt is dissolved in water, the addition of another salt (such as potassium bromide) would cause the dissociation of strychnine from its ionic counterpart to form an insoluble precipitate that would settle at the bottom of the bottle. It was a simple matter for Evelyn Howard to add one or two of Mrs. Inglethorp’s bromide powders to her strychnine tonic and wait for the unsuspecting victim to take the final draught with a concentrated and lethal dose of strychnine.

Comparison of covalent and ionic bonds

The Art of Dispensing: A Treatise on the Methods and Processes Involved in Compounding Medical Prescriptions

By chance, this final dose was taken on the same night that Mary Cavendish chose to also poison Mrs. Inglethorp with a narcotic, although her motive was not to kill. The addition of this third chemical compound proved to be a red herring but delayed the effect of the strychnine to confuse the method of murder. The overall scheme to murder Mrs. Inglethorp with her own “medicine” did involve some scientific understanding, which is explained by the fact that Evelyn Howard’s father was a doctor and she herself seems to be a nurse. During the denouement, Poirot reads from The Art of Dispensing: A Treatise on the Methods and Processes involved in Compounding Medical Prescriptions, which he states could be found at the hospital dispensary. This is indeed an important book in the history of pharmacology and was first published in 1888.

A Stylish Success

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was overall well reviewed, but Agatha’s favorite review was from The Pharmaceutic Journal, a scientific journal who praised the accuracy of the chemistry in the story. The novel is almost a love letter to chemistry, and it is easy to imagine Christie wiling away the hours in her dispensary imaging the plot. It also marks a welcome progression for the detective novel back in to the scientific method.

The development of the mystery novel at this point in history was brief but had not been marked by great scientific integrity. The introduction of Inspector Bucket’s deductive powers into Bleak House by Charles Dickens were somewhat diminished by the inclusion of spontaneous combustion as a key plot point, and the use of an opium “experiment” in the conclusion of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins also left something to be desired with regards to what Poirot calls “order and method.” The introduction of Sherlock Holmes a few years later by physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle was attended by a “profound knowledge of chemistry” by Holmes, according to his biographer, Dr. John Watson. Further in the canon, Holmes’s deference to science is somewhat hindered by his creator’s burgeoning interest in spirituality. Nevertheless, there was an opening for detective novels with accurate and intriguing science that was readily assumed by Christie.

Original illustration of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget

Meanwhile in True Crime...

At one point in history, strychnine was reported to be the third most frequently used poison employed by murderers, behind arsenic and cyanide. No longer often reported as a cause of death, strychnine poisoning was involved in two noteworthy criminal cases around the time of the publication of Styles. As noted in the novel, strychnine is extremely bitter and difficult to conceal in food and drink. The poison can be detected in water in as low as 1 part in 70,000; a fatal dose would need to be diluted in 7 liters of water, rendering this method difficult to execute without raising suspicion.

The Blue Anchor Hotel (Source: ITV)

In 1924, just a few years after the release of the novel, Mrs. Mabel Jones, the wife of a British innkeeper, was convalescing from an unspecified illness in France. There she met a wireless (telegraph) operator named Jean-Pierre Vaquier, and the two began an affair. Somewhat romantically, as neither spoke the other’s language, Mabel brought a French/English dictionary along on their assignations to use to communicate. A short time after Mabel returned to England, Jean-Pierre followed and eventually lodged in the hotel run by Mabel’s husband, Mr. Alfred Jones, the Blue Anchor Hotel in Byfleet, Surrey. Mabel and Jean-Pierre continued the affair in England.
Alfred Jones took regular doses of bromide powders to counteract the effects of alcohol, which he was prone to abuse. Alfred’s bromide was kept in a small blue bottle stored in the hotel bar. One morning, Alfred noted upon preparing a dose of his bromide that the powders were not as fizzy as he was accustomed to seeing them, and when Mabel observed the bottle, there were long crystals mixed in with the usual fine powder. She tasted the long crystals, which were bitter, and then gave her husband some salt water as an emetic (to stimulate vomiting) and some tea with soda (to calm the stomach). Despite his wife’s best efforts, Alfred succumbed to the convulsions and died about 90 minutes after taking the tainted bromide.

Jean-Pierre immediately came under suspicion. Investigators seized the blue bottle, which still contained traces of strychnine despite being cleaned. Evidence emerged that Jean-Pierre had purchased strychnine for the stated purpose of “wireless experiments” and signed the poison register with a false name. During his criminal trial, an independent wireless expert testified that there were no known applications of strychnine in wireless communications. Jean-Pierre was found guilty and hanged for the murder of his lover’s husband; the ghost of Alfred Jones is said to haunt the Blue Anchor Hotel to this day.

Another case of murder involving strychnine from several years prior to the publication of Styles was Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (The Lambeth Poisoner), who murdered four women in 1892. As a young doctor in Canada, Dr. Cream had a practice in which he regularly performed abortions until the dead body of a young chambermaid was found in his office, and he fled to Chicago.
After resuming his work as a physician in the United States, another young woman associated with Dr. Cream died. He was arrested under suspicion for her murder but was ultimately not charged. Dr. Cream was found guilty of murder the following year after he poisoned the husband of one of his patients with strychnine. Although given a life sentence, Dr. Cream was released 10 years later due to “good behavior.” Dr. Cream traveled to England upon his release.

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, Montreal, QC, 1874 | I-99946.1

Soon after arriving in London, Dr. Cream began poisoning sex workers by administering pills that he stated would improve the women’s complexions. The pills, however, were composed primarily of strychnine, and the consumers would perish in agony several hours later. In short order, Dr. Cream was arrested and rapidly convicted, then hanged at Newgate Prison. A perhaps apocryphal story asserts that his last words were “I am Jack the…,” with the hangman’s noose pulling taut prior to completion of the sentence. Dr. Cream was imprisoned in the US in 1888, during Jack the Ripper’s murderous spree in Whitechapel, so it is not likely that he was the perpetrator.

The next blog post—Dressed to the Strychnines, Act III—contains a historical examination of double jeopardy in England as it pertains to The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Posted in Hercule Poirot, History, Morphine, Narcotic, Novels, Poison, Potassium Bromide, Strychnine, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Toxicology, True Crime Tagged Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot, Mystery, Poison, Toxicology, True Crime

Dressed to the Strychnines, Act I

Posted on May 11, 2018April 30, 2021 by Harley

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and a minor plot spoiler for A Caribbean Mystery.**

"Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master."

Hercule Poirot

Formulating a Mystery

The previous post, What’s in a Dame?, provided a very brief biographical sketch of Agatha Christie up until her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was accepted for publication in 1919. The novel was subsequently published in 1920.
Let us revisit Agatha at work in the Castle Chambers hospital dispensary a few years prior. In her autobiography, she states:
Unlike nursing, where there always was something to do, dispensing consisted of slack or busy periods. Sometimes I would be on duty alone in the afternoon with hardly anything to do but sit about. Having seen that the stock bottles were full and attended to, one was at liberty to do anything one pleased except leave the dispensary.

Photo by Tim Jenkinson

It was in this setting that Agatha plotted her first novel, which would logically employ poisoning. It was also obvious to her that her detective novel would include the detective’s friend “as a kind of butt or stooge,” as in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Regarding the plot, she describes considering the minutiae in a way that would forever be associated with her name and oeuvre:
The whole point of a good detective story was that it must be somebody obvious but at the same time, for some reason, you would then find that it was not obvious, that he could not possibly have done it. Though really, of course, he had done it.

She goes on to say:
At that point I got confused, and went away and made up a couple of bottles of extra hypochlorous lotion so that I should be fairly free of work the next day.

A 0.5% solution of hypochlorous acid in lotion was a common treatment for wound healing at the time.

Dramatis Personae

For the characters in Styles, Agatha observed her neighbors and fellow tram passengers for inspiration. Using the considerable imagination she had shown throughout her childhood, she created names and backstories based on the appearances of the people she encountered. In this way, she developed the characters of Emily Inglethorp, Alfred Inglethorp, and Evelyn Howard.
Creating her detective character was a more serious undertaking for Christie. She thought of Sherlock Holmes but considered herself unable to emulate him. She was not terribly keen on Poe’s Arsene Lupin, who was both a criminal and a detective. In her autobiography, she goes on to mention Rouletabille from Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room as a distinctive character similar to the one she sought to invent—“someone who hadn’t been used before.”

Source: Wordsworth Editions Ltd

The Mystery of the Yellow Room was written by Gaston Leroux (author of The Phantom of the Opera) and published as a serial in 1907. The crime at the center of the novel is the assault of a young woman in a room within a French château that was locked from the inside—a locked room mystery. The protagonist of the novel, Joseph Rouletabille, is a journalist and amateur sleuth accompanied by his lawyer friend, who also narrates the novel. In addition to these tropes, Christie was no doubt inspired by Leroux’s inclusion of diagrams and floorplans describing the crime scene, a device which she would use throughout her novels.

The Genesis of Poirot

In addition to the influence from this recently published work of mystery fiction, Christie looked to her surroundings to create one of the most memorable detectives in the history of the genre, Hercule Poirot. In the nearby parish of Tor, a group of Belgian refugees from the Great War had settled comfortably. Christie considered it plausible that one of these refugees could be a retired police detective, attempting to live a solitary life tending to a garden but being continually interrupted to solve perplexing crimes. In her autobiography, Christie notes she settled on the phrase “little grey cells” during this development of Poirot and that he would be a very tidy man. The first name of her detective naturally derived from the mythological character of Hercules, but Christie could not recall from where conceived of “Poirot”; she thought perhaps she had seen it in a newspaper.
For the next few weeks, Agatha pieced together the puzzle mystery in her head. She completed the first draft of the story in longhand, and then typed the manuscript on her sister’s old typewriter. Despite this progress, Agatha struggled to put the complete story together, and particularly in the central portion of the book. At her mother’s suggestion, she took a one-week vacation in Dartmoor. During long walks on the moor, Agatha spoke through the various scenes she proposed for the book—to herself—before writing them out. After this vacation, she was more satisfied with the near-complete book.

Hercule Poirot

The surname of Poirot is thought to originate from the French word for “pear” (poire) and roughly translates as “a grower of pears.” As described in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, following Poirot’s retirement from his service as private detective, he becomes an ardent grower of vegetable marrows (a type of squash) rather than pears.

A Mysterious Affair

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was refused by the first two publishers to whom Agatha sent it: Hodder & Stoughton and Methuen’s. She sent it to a third publisher, whose name she cannot recall in her autobiography, which also declined to publish it. The final publishing group that Agatha tried—The Bodley Head—held onto the manuscript for nearly two years before informing Christie that they were considering publishing the novel with a few changes. Primarily, Agatha was asked to change the last chapter, which originally occurred during a court scene where Poirot essentially testified the solution to the mystery. Her method to accede to this request by her publisher would become a Christie mainstay throughout her novels and short stories.
After accepting this feedback, Christie eagerly signed her contract from The Bodley Head, which committed her to 5 additional novels; in her zeal she neglected to read this clause. Thus began this celebrated history of 66 novels and 14 collections of short stories with The Mysterious Affair at Styles. After the first five novels and a collection of short stories, Agatha fulfilled her contract with The Bodley Head, and most of her work was published by William Collins & Sons.

Happy Families

Source: Penguin Random House

The novel begins in the small Essex country town of Styles St. Mary with Arthur Hastings, an officer in the British Army, who is recuperating from an injury suffered during World War I. By coincidence, Hastings stumbles upon an old school friend, John Cavendish, who invites Hastings to stay at his family’s country manor, Styles Court, for an interminable period of time. During tea one afternoon, Hastings is asked his future plans and at this point, the reader is offered the first hint of Hercule Poirot as Hastings speaks of his own desire to become a detective:
I came across a man in Belgium once, a very famous detective, and he quite inflamed me. He was a marvelous little fellow. He used to say that all good detective work was a mere matter of method. My system is based on his—though of course I have progressed rather further. He was a funny little man, a great dandy, but wonderfully clever.
The inhabitants of Styles Court are somewhat ill at ease because the family matriarch, Emily Inglethorp, who is the stepmother of John and his brother Lawrence, has remarried a much younger man, Alfred Inglethorp. Particularly outraged at the pairing is Mrs. Cavendish’s companion, Evelyn Howard, though it is revealed early in the novel that Inglethorp is her distant cousin. Rounding out the household members are Mary Cavendish, John’s wife; Cynthia Murdoch, Mrs. Inglethorp’s ward; and Dorcas, the loyal maid.

Several weeks after Hastings first arrives at Styles, the house is disturbed very early one morning by Mrs. Inglethorp in her agonizing death throes. As the household gathers in a vain attempt to help the poor woman, she cries out the name of her husband (noticeably absent from the scene) and dies. Also missing from the scene is the ward Cynthia, who was unable to be roused by Mary.
Given Mrs. Inglethorp’s strong convulsions prior to death, strychnine is immediately suspected. The police and family quickly consider Alfred the prime suspect, as he would benefit financially by his wife’s death. As luck would have it prior to Mrs. Inglethorp’s death, Hastings happened to encounter the detective friend of whom he spoke at tea, who is staying with a collective of Belgian refugees in the village. Thus, we are introduced to Hercule Poirot.

Source: The Bodley Head

Strychnine Tree

Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible. I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandyfied little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved triumphs by unraveling some of the most baffling cases of the day.
Poirot begins his own investigation, examining the crime scene and interrogating witnesses throughout the village. Both he and the police uncover that Alfred Inglethorp (or someone who closely resembled him) had purchased strychnine in the village. He is able to dissuade the police from arresting Alfred Inglethorp because he establishes the prime suspect’s alibi with no fewer than five corroborating witnesses.

Dramatic Denouement

Suspicion quickly falls onto the next most likely suspect, John Cavendish, who would inherit Styles Court after his stepmother’s death. The prosecution asserts that John killed his stepmother before she had the opportunity of disinheriting him following an argument that they had earlier that day. Before a verdict is reached, Poirot unravels the case in a flurry of activity and requests that all interested parties (along with Inspectors Japp and Summerhaye from Scotland Yard) meet with him. During that meeting, Poirot reveals:
Mary Cavendish had administered nonlethal doses of a narcotic to Cynthia and Mrs. Inglethorp the night of the latter’s death in order to gain access to her room for a letter containing evidence of John Cavendish’s extramarital affair, which did not exist.
Mrs. Inglethorp was fatally poisoned as a result of the combination of the potassium bromide that she habitually took in combination with her strychnine tonic. The narcotic delayed the action of the strychnine until the early morning hours.
The perpetrators were Alfred Inglethorp and Evelyn Howard, who were lovers. Mrs. Inglethorp became aware of the affair in the afternoon before her death when she discovered an incriminating letter in her husband’s writing desk. Evelyn had poured one of the bromide powders into the strychnine tonic several days prior, and the resulting precipitate would be fatal; the two criminals merely had to wait until Mrs. Inglethorp took the final, concentrated dose.

Photo by Bruce Hartford

The characters of Cynthia (a hospital dispenser) and Lawrence (an aspiring writer) describe Agatha Christie in combination, so it is appropriate that they are engaged by the end of the novel.

There are several other side plots in the novel, which are wrapped up neatly as well. Lawrence and Cynthia become engaged, and John and Mary rekindle their love, leading Hastings to think:
Who on earth but Poirot would have thought of a trial for murder as a restorer of conjugal happiness!

In addition to introducing the frequently used ending scene with the final explanation of the crime occurring in a room in which all interested parties were gather, The Mysterious Affair at Styles also marked the first instance of one character looking over another’s shoulder and seeing something surprising, puzzling, or frightening, when Lawrence glances nervously over Hastings’s shoulder at Cynthia’s door lock during Mrs. Inglethorp’s death scene. Christie would use this device throughout her work, perhaps most notably in A Caribbean Mystery. Another element in Styles destined for reuse was a secret pair of lovers colluding together to commit a crime while overtly quarreling to dispel suspicion.
However, there are two components of this mystery that will be the focus of two upcoming posts: strychnine poisoning and double jeopardy.

The next two blog posts will examine the various poisons employed in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Act II) and the unique legal history of double jeopardy (Act III).

Posted in A Caribbean Mystery, Biography, Captain Hastings, Hercule Poirot, Novels, Potassium Bromide, Strychnine, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Toxicology Tagged Agatha Christie, Bodley Head, Captain Hastings, Hercule Poirot, Mystery, Toxicology

A Singular Dedication

The Mysterious Mr. Quin was published in 1930, shortly after the death of Christie’s brother Monty from a stroke possibly related to wounds suffered in World War I.

Christie and the Harlequinade

A Victorious Affair

True Crime Inspiration

Christie even borrowed the name “Cronshaw” from a previous criminal lawsuit that involved Reggie de Veulle, where one of the victims was named William Cronshaw.

Cocaine possession was illegal in Britain following the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, which was passed in 1916.

Physiological Effects of Cocaine

Inhibition of the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin is the primary function of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are popular antidepressant medications.

Electrolytes are ionic (or positively or negatively charged) forms of mineral elements, for example, sodium (+1), potassium (+1), and calcium (+2).

Rigor Mortis

An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes chemical reactions by reducing the energy required, and they are not consumed by the reaction. An enzymatic cofactor is a molecule that binds to a specific region of an enzyme and is required for the normal function of the enzyme.

The next blog post will further explore the characters of Harley Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite and describe medical conditions whose names are derived from the character of Harlequin.

The Harlequinade Continues

One of the locations where Mr. Satterthwaite happens to meet Harley Quin is a restaurant called Arlecchino, after the original Italian for “harlequin.”

The Harlequin-inspired stories serve to almost bookend Agatha Christie’s career as the first Poirot (The Affair at the Victory Ball) and last ever (The Harlequin Tea Set) published short stories. The Passing of Mr. Quinn was the first British film adaptation of one of Christie’s works.

The Harlequin Tea Set

Daltonism

Harlequin Medical Disorders

Botulinum toxin (common brand name: Botox) is produced by Clostridium botulinum and is used medically to block nerve signalling for the treatment of wrinkles, excessive sweating, and migraine headaches. It also causes the foodborne illness, botulism, which can be fatal.

“Ichthyosis” literally means “fish skin condition.”

Repaying Attention

An Acidulated Spinster

The original title was Thirteen at Dinner, which was used the following year for a different Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot and alternatively titled Lord Edgware Dies.

A Rag-Tag Group

St. Peter's Thumb

To Cut the Thread of Life

In The Big Four, Hercule Poitrot uses belladonna in his eyes to disguise himself as his “brother”, Achille Poirot, an invention to elude defeat by the novel’s villains.

The poison scopolamine has similar effects as atropine and was the poison allegedly used by Dr. Hawley Crippen to dispatch his wife in a well-known historical true crime. Christie also included scopolamine as a murder weapon in her first play, Black Coffee.

A Pile of Carp

Meanwhile in True Crime...

Blue Flowers

Litmus paper contains the molecule 7-hydroxyphenoxazone, a weak acid which changes to a blue color at an alkaline (basic) pH of 8.3 or higher. When a strong base is added, the molecule donates a hydrogen atom, and the resulting conjugate base has a blue color.

The Auburn Cyanide Murders of 1986

The ability to smell cyanide is a genetic trait, which has been shown to be prevalent in approximately 50% of people.

Foxglove is a source of the poison digitalis, which Christie used in several novels and stories including Appointment with Death, Postern of Fate, and The Herb of Death in The Thirteen Problems.

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and minor plot spoilers for Bleak House by Charles Dickens and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.**​

The Herb of Death

Absorption and Metabolism

Deadly Effects

Partners in Crime

Potassium bromide was used so frequently as a sedative at the turn of the century that the term “bromide” became synonymous with a dull person or a boring platitude.

A Stylish Success

Meanwhile in True Crime...

The next blog post—Dressed to the Strychnines, Act III—contains a historical examination of double jeopardy in England as it pertains to The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and a minor plot spoiler for A Caribbean Mystery.**​

Formulating a Mystery

A 0.5% solution of hypochlorous acid in lotion was a common treatment for wound healing at the time.

Dramatis Personae

The Genesis of Poirot

A Mysterious Affair

Happy Families

Dramatic Denouement

The characters of Cynthia (a hospital dispenser) and Lawrence (an aspiring writer) describe Agatha Christie in combination, so it is appropriate that they are engaged by the end of the novel.

The next two blog posts will examine the various poisons employed in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Act II) and the unique legal history of double jeopardy (Act III).​

**In The Big Four, Hercule Poitrot uses belladonna in his eyes to disguise himself as his “brother”, Achille Poirot, an invention to elude defeat by the novel’s villains.**

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and minor plot spoilers for Bleak House by Charles Dickens and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.**

**Contains major plot spoilers for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and a minor plot spoiler for A Caribbean Mystery.**

The next two blog posts will examine the various poisons employed in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Act II) and the unique legal history of double jeopardy (Act III).