[Dr. Sivana]

Or, if they had more episodes, The Zeck Trilogy. Not great as mysteries, but a lot of fun (In the first one, "And Be a Villain" one of the murder victims is killed on live radio after drinking a poisoned carbonated beverage called Sparkle, the show's sponsor.)

In the introduction to the current paperback edition to "And Be a Villain", it is noted that the original name of the beverage was not "Sparkle", but "Wink", and the writer didn't know why the name was changed. I have a VERY GOOD guess: there actually WAS a drink called Wink, it was made by Canada Dry, and was a citrus-grapefruit drink similar to Squirt or Fresca. Since the drink was readily available in the northeast, Stout probably had seen it without realizing it.

[mairdie]

>>there actually WAS a drink called Wink

Lovely connection. Good catch.

[V K Lee]

There have been a number of “pop” drink names that can no longer be found in the market place. When you mentioned “Wink” it was vaguely remembered as such in part of my ancient memory gray cells.

Also remembered a pale beverage bottled by Coke(?)that was a soda pop sold. The color of ginger ale, non-alcoholic, but very much compared to the drinking of Champagne. For the life of me, I’ve attempted to remember the name; even searching the on line old listings and “old country stores” which cater to consumers on line as to catch a few clues.
Any ideas? Detective work is not as easy as Nero seemed to make it to be.