"Queen of Crime"... an exhibition that reveals the secrets of Agatha Christie and her genius in the world of poisons

- Before Agatha Christie became one of the best-selling authors in history, she worked in a drug store in her hometown, Torquay, for a man she referred to in her memoirs as the letter “P.” This man was no ordinary person in Christie's eyes.

In her autobiography, she noted that he used to keep a dark piece of the poisonous substance curare in his pocket because it gave him a “feeling of strength.” Despite his "angelic" appearance, she believed that his behavior might make him a "dangerous man."

One time, Christie noticed a mistake he made while teaching her how to prepare medicinal suppositories, as he used a dose 10 times higher than the required dose. Knowing that the man would not heed her warning due to her young age, Christie decided to dispose of the medication herself; So she poured it on the floor and stepped on it hard, to prevent the wrong dose from reaching the store shelves.

In that environment, coinciding with the outbreak of World War I, the features of her detective novels began to take shape. Her work in pharmacy also helped her gain extensive knowledge of toxicology, which later became a prominent element in her literary works.

After leaving P Store, Christie began her pharmacy training at a Torquay hospital in 1916. While preparing for exams, she read a specialist reference book, The Pharmaceutical Pocket Book — for Practitioners & Students, which inspired the use of strychnine in the murder that formed the focus of her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920.

Today, visitors can view Christie's original copy of this reference, in a new exhibition entitled "Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery." The exhibition is scheduled to open at the British Library in London on October 30.

The book will be revealed for the first time, along with more than 200 pieces of Agatha Christie’s possessions, made available by her family and the party supervising her legacy, according to what the exhibition’s curator, Lucy Rowland, said. Rowland explained that these possessions reveal the extent of the research on which Christie relied in her work, and the extent of her familiarity with medicines and deadly chemical compounds.

Her precise descriptions of the poisons, which were the means of killing in 41 of her 66 detective novels, still agree with scientific facts today. Behind the public image, 50 years after her death, Agatha Christie still sits on the undisputed throne of the detective novel, surrounded by an aura of mystery.

Despite her widespread fame, Christie maintained her humility, and was famous for describing herself as a “sausage-making machine,” in reference to her publishers’ expectations of her to write one successful novel after another. Jamie Bernthal Hooker, a researcher specializing in her work at the University of Suffolk in Britain, believes that this image helped her gain the public’s trust.

“Even today, people are still afraid of intelligent, powerful women,” he said. “I think the greatest fictional character Christie created was herself.”

New exhibitions and research, including an exhibition at the British Library, reveal other aspects of her life. Christie lived between 1890 and 1976, and witnessed tremendous changes, from the reign of Queen Victoria to the man landing on the moon.

Dr. Mark Aldridge, a historian who specializes in the works of Agatha Christie and an assistant professor of screen history at the University of Southampton Solent in Britain, said: “I think that if she had lived a few more years and watched the movie “Star Wars” when it was released in 1977, she would have written a novel called “Murder in Space,” because of her passion for everything new.” Although she did not receive a formal education, her curiosity, keen observation, and vast imagination helped her write her novels.

She was also influenced by growing up in a family that loved traveling and telling stories, according to her eldest grandson, James Pritchard, who is responsible for managing the rights to her works. Before becoming a well-known writer, Agatha Christie volunteered at the age of 24 to care for wounded soldiers during World War I, at the Red Cross Hospital, in the British city of Torquay.

After two years, I moved to work in the pharmacy field, where I learned to prepare medicines, to help fill the shortage in the number of employees. During her extensive training in preparation for the Society of Pharmacists' Assistant Examination in 1917, Christie's keen eye for detail developed.

She recounts in her memoirs that one night she returned to the hospital pharmacy to make sure she had not accidentally mixed the ingredients of the ointments. Her experience in this area is reflected in her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where one of her characters says: “If you knew how easy it is to accidentally poison someone, you wouldn't treat it so cynically.”

During World War II, Christie returned to work at the University College London Pharmacy, where the chief pharmacist, Harold Davis, suggested that she use "thallium" in one of her novels. Christie combined this advice with her previous observations about Mr. P, who inspired the villainous chemist character in her 1961 novel The Pale Horse.

According to Aldridge, the novel revolves around the conflict between science and myth. While the victim appears to be under the influence of a magical curse, it turns out that she is slowly being poisoned with thallium.

Thallium is generally known as the “killers’ poison,” as it is a tasteless and odorless substance that acts slowly and mimics potassium in the body, making it difficult to detect before it is too late. Thanks to Christie's account and her accurate description of the symptoms of thallium poisoning, her writings contributed to saving the lives of two people.

In 1975, a young woman in South America was able to uncover an attempt to poison one of her acquaintances, and two years later, Christie's novel helped a nurse in London discover that a child had been infected with thallium poisoning, which contributed to saving her life. A Quiet Genius After World War II, Agatha Christie stopped working in the field of pharmacy, but nevertheless, she followed the most prominent developments in the world of medicine, using reading and communicating with specialists.

Although her stories shied away from scenes of bloody violence, poisons occupied a prominent place in them, because of the hidden methods and schemes they provided that were difficult to detect. With her effortless style, Christie revealed a deep understanding of human nature, according to Dr. Michelle Kazmer, dean of the College of Communication and Information and a professor in the College of Information at Florida State University.

It dealt with the themes of love, justice, good and evil from different and multidimensional angles. In addition to her accurate depiction of poisoning crimes from a scientific perspective, the characters of doctors and pharmacists are abundant in her novels. Some of them were victims, while others were involved in murders.

Pritchard, Agatha Christie's eldest grandson, said: "You can't master these things unless you have a real desire to learn them. I don't think she expected medicine to arouse her interest when she started working in the hospital at the outbreak of World War I, but this interest began to grow with time, and it continued to accompany her throughout her life."