A Dram of Poison

By Charlotte Armstrong

A longtime bachelor finally marries -- only to learn the corrosive power of jealousy .

For fifty-five years, Kenneth Gibson has lived in backwaters. A former army clerk, he makes a quiet living teaching poetry to indifferent undergrads. His life is happily dull until the day he meets Rosemary, a damaged girl whose frailty compels Kenneth to try to make her well. They wed, and as Rosemary recovers from her depression, Gibson falls in love, transforming his world. But his wife will never love him.

She is smitten with their landlord, a dashing young chemical engineer named Paul. Gibson wants to let her go, but he cannot bear to be parted with the first love he has ever known. In Paul's house is a case of poison, and this love triangle can only end in death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784083175

Charlotte Armstrong

Edgar Award–winning Charlotte Armstrong (1905–1969) was one of the finest American authors of classic mystery and suspense. The daughter of an inventor, Armstrong was born in Vulcan, Michigan, and attended Barnard College, in New York City. After college she worked at the New York Times and the magazine Breath of the Avenue, before marrying and turning to literature in 1928. For a decade she wrote plays and poetry, with work produced on Broadway and published in the New Yorker. In the early 1940s, she began writing suspense. Success came quickly. Her first novel, Lay On, MacDuff! (1942) was well received, spawning a three-book series. Over the next two decades, she wrote more than two dozen novels, winning critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. The Unsuspected (1945) and Mischief (1950) were both made into films, and A Dram of Poison (1956) won the Edgar Award for best novel. She died in California in 1969.

Reviews for A Dram of Poison

[booksandscones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book almost lost me in the beginning - it was very slow and almost boring. I wonder if the author intended this? When the action does pick up, it goes into high gear immediately. A most unlikely group are gathered up like a comet's tail to aid and comfort a hapless poetry professor, and prevent a potential tragedy. As much philosophy as suspense from a writer who is not well-remembered now but was famous in her day.

[auntieknickers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am engaged in a (slow) project to read all the Edgar Award winning Best Novels, starting with the first in 1954. #4 was Charlotte Armstrong's A DRAM OF POISON. I had been seeing Charlotte Armstrong's name on bookshelves since I first got into the adult section of the library, but I don't believe I'd ever read one of her books. Now I think I'll read some more!
This was the first of the books that I have really enjoyed, even though it still didn't fit the classic detective story paradigm. The LC subject heading was Romantic Suspense, and my library had the book (enclosed in The Charlotte Armstrong Reader, with two other novels) in the general fiction section, although some of her books are in its mystery section.
Based on this sample, Charlotte Armstrong wrote extremely well, was able to create characters with depth of personality that readers can care about, and to create page-turning suspense. Someone commented to me as I was beginning to read the book that it started off slowly, and I would agree, though the quality of the writing kept me going through the set-up part. When the suspense gets going it really takes off, and yet Armstrong managed to include a fair bit of humor, romance, and trenchant philosophy from a bus-driver with it all. I was even surprised by the ending! You'll note that I haven't summarized the plot -- it's a hard one to summarize without giving too much away. Just read it. You won't be sorry.