Sparkling Cyanide

It's a very unusual (in a way) book by Agatha Christie. At first, it is a non-serial book, which means no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. In fact, there' s no bright leader detective at all. Of course there are some policemen, but the secret of the death of young Rosmary Barton is solved with the effort of many people and due to some events and coincidences. And you know what, I love it. Usually there's an obvious leader in the investigation in Christie's books. And this leader often is the almost the only person who wants to learn the truth about the crime which was committed. But this time we have a frightened girl, a sister of the deceased.
It's one of the earliest stories by Christie. She was trying herself in this genre, so to say. And considering what I've mentioned above, we got a detective book which has the story itself at the foreground. However, we can already see the premises for the upcoming famous "Hercule Poirot 's structure", meaning the narrative is moving from description and point of view of each character step by step.
The heroine (Iris Marlo) fascinated me. She came across as a very bold young woman even despite her age and the complicated circumstances she found herself in. However, another character - Anthony Brown – drew my attention most. At first he made me very suspicious. He was obviously hiding something. But what? Were his intentions to Iris sincere? No one, even the actual murderer (no spoilers!) didn't make me feel so uncertain and full of doubts. Could Iris trust him? While reading I began to think he was involved in the crime or at least he wanted to use the circumstances for his own interest. Imagine my surprise when he appeared to be a very decent man, and moreover, a very bright one who actually solved the riddle of the second homicide and cared about Iris a lot.
Meanwhile I didn't notice anything suspicious about the criminals before the denouement. Now I realize that it's a deliberate trick pulled off by the author to redirect readers' attention. Christie's style. You can never guess what has really happened in any of her stories.
And also for me it's a lesson of trusting a man. I did love the subtle romantic subtext of the story. So innocent and fragile, like a fairytale. And they lived happily ever after...

ОСТОРОЖНО, ВОЗМОЖНЫ СПОЙЛЕРЫ!
Читаю уже третий детектив у Агаты Кристи и уже третий раз с трудом дочитываю.
Эта книга вообще была предсказуема с самого начала. Как известно, существует только 3 вида убийства: ради денег, ради мести и ради женщины. По скольку, всю книгу писательница пыталась доказать, что это из-за женщины, то это было 100% не поэтому. Мести вообще быть не могло (хотя было пару намеков и на это), а вот деньги упоминались вскользь и невзначай.
Не скажу, что читать было совсем тяжело, но все-таки не так легко как Конан Дойля.
Не моя писательница, не моя.