The Christmas poisoner who murdered by the book ...

A bottle of wine laced with deadly poison; a stack of Agatha Christie books in the suspect's home: the ingredients for a true-life Christmas Eve crime

On 24December 1977 in Cri(C)ances, France, Maxime Masseron, 80, and his wife sat down for their Christmas Eve meal. They had decided to open a bottle of Cites du Rhine given to them by their nephew, Roland Roussel, in the summer. The elderly couple were normally abstemious and they had saved the bottle for a special occasion. Perhaps they toasted their nephew before they took a drink. A few minutes later Maxime was dead and his wife was unconscious.

Fortunately a neighbour found the couple and Mrs Masseron was rushed to hospital but was still in a coma 11 days later. Doctors thought it was a case of food poisoning; the couple had made a mistake in the preparation of their festive food, a tragic accident. However, the diagnosis came into question a few days later when the couple's son-in-law, Paul Isabert, and the local carpenter, Roger Regnault, called at the Masseron's home. The bottle of wine was still on the table. Perhaps the pair drank to the memory of Maxime or to the speedy recovery of his wife. Maybe they just didn't want to waste the wine. Whatever the reason, they both collapsed on the floor unconscious.