Why does famous crime writer Agatha Christie mention the metalloid arsenic in her novels frequently?

Question

Why does famous crime writer Agatha Christie mention the metalloid arsenic in her novels frequently?

Answer 1

Actually, according to a quiz, cyanide was the poison that appeared most often in her novels, but arsenic was second.  Arsenic was used to kill vermin (rats, mice, some insects, etc.) so was often found in households and therefore a handy murder weapon.  Christie had worked at dispensing medicines during WWI so she knew her poisons. Digitalis (foxglove) also appeared on a regular basis.

Incidentally, people used to eat arsenic to help digestion and women used it in makeup before it was realized how toxic it really was.

Hope you enjoy her books-- I did!  

Answer 2

It is a poison commonly used as it was inexpensive, easy to get hold of since it was a house hold item, and with that periods technology hard to detect. I think its use had something to do with horses...  

Answer 3

Arsenic was a preferred means of murder in Christie's books as well as in mystery tales by a range of authors. (The first answerer is correct regarding easy accessibility of the poison and the possibility of avoiding detection if the victim ingested small amounts at a time.)

The use of this poison was credible in the fiction of that era as arsenic had long been a common means of murder in Europe up till that period.  http://www.history-magazine.com/arsenic....  

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/06/...

"Arsenic became a favorite murder weapon of the Middle Ages and Renaissance  . . . . Because the symptoms are similar to those of cholera, which was common at the time, arsenic poisoning often went undetected. By the 19th C., it had acquired the nickname 'inheritance powder' . . . ."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_poi...

British readers of A.Christie's novels at the time that she wrote them would have been familiar with infamous local cases of murder by arsenic.

[Although it's easy to detect these days, some murderers still prefer arsenic.  http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/st...          ]