Sparkling Cyanide

Jul 5, 2025 12:20 AM

Author:Agatha Christie,Naomi Frederick,Peter Wight,Sean Baker,Full Cast

Sparkling Cyanide

‘There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembrance.’ Published in 1945, Sparkling Cyanide is all about remembrance. It begins with six characters recalling the horrific death of Rosemary Barton, a beautiful but shallow young heiress poisoned by a cyanide-spiked glass of champagne whilst celebrating her birthday at a smart London restaurant. Rosemary haunts all six characters, each of them a suspect, throughout the story – and it’s not until her killer is found and her ghost laid to rest that the group can move on, though they will never forget. With a distinguished cast including Naomi Frederick, Peter Wight and Sean Baker, this wonderfully entertaining production retains the thrill of Agatha Christie’s clever, compulsive story.

Reviews

The most exciting and, in some ways, generous piece of fiction I've read in some time... I relish the way it dazzles and mystifies. I love its generosity of spirit, its whiff of frailty - the way the whole thing seems steeped in light

—— Julie Myerson , Observer

Stunning... sublime... One of the most profound and profoundly moving books that it's been my privilege to read

—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on Sunday

His vision is genuinely original...the brilliance of his premise rebounds throughout the novel, catching unexpected angles, radiating metaphor and meaning, and providing us with a new way of thinking about suffering - which must be one of the most important things any novelist can do

—— Edmund Gordon , Sunday Times

After a while the book itself seems to glow... Brockmeier, by the sheer grace of his writing, forces you to hold mortality and love in the forefront of your mind and just let them sink in

—— Guardian

The Illumination is a quietly ambitious work ... Brockmeier clears a space for the exploration of beauties and pains that in a cruder novel might have been sentimental

—— Michael Sayeau , Times Literary Supplement

A novel of slight eccentricity and great tenderness

—— Kate Saunders , The Times

Brockmeier is such a good stylist

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

Gentle notes instil a sense of humour and hope in a world that is full of darkness even when it is bathed in light

—— Nicola Meighan , The List

The novel follows a handwritten journal full of love notes from a husband to his wife as it passes through six pairs of hands. Each section is like a self-contained short story; exploring the meaning that each of the recipients takes from this testament of love

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

The Illumination has a fantastically original premise...the writing quality was excellent and I'm sure I'll remember scenes from this book for a long time to come. It is a wonderfully unique novel. Recommended

—— Farm Lane Books Blog

It is a delicate and intriguing look at something we ultimately all have in common

—— Bookgeeks.co.uk

Gloriously inventive and original, euphorically daring in scope - reminds you that fiction can be energetic and boundary-breaking

—— Julie Myerson , New Statesman, Books of the Year

An inspiring take on suffering and the often fleeting nature of connection

—— Publishers Weekly

This is a radiant, bewitching, and profoundly inquisitive novel of sorrow, perseverance, and wonderment

—— Booklist

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