Bulgarian Umbrella (Signature Weapon)

This post is part of my Signature Weapons series. While most of the weapons mentioned so far are either traditional weapons and/or belong to crime fiction, this one is fairly modern and was made infamous during the Cold War. You may never have heard the term Bulgarian umbrella, but I think you probably know the device: a seemingly mundane umbrella with a hidden mechanism capable of shooting ricin in a victim's body. It has been used in real life by the Bulgarian ecret Services against dissidents. It's a signature weapon in the truest sense, the literal sense. Because of its origins, it belongs more to spy thriller than crime fiction, at least it's a more natural fit, but who knows, sometimes both genres connect. Obviously (and naturally), this is a villain's weapon. 

About umbrellas

There is something you probably don't know about me: I don't like umbrellas much. I find them cumbersome. When it rains, I rather have a good coat with a reliable hood and keep my hands free. But anyway, long story short it was raining a lot yesterday afternoon. So when we went to pick up Wolfie from school, a lot of parents held umbrellas. We talked to the mother of one of Wolfie's friends and she was telling us that she used to have a very fancy umbrella that her son destroyed, using it as a parachute while he played in a trampoline. I don't know the details, but that's the gist of it. And since then, she only bought and used cheap umbrellas. I told her: "Well, if it is any consolation, umbrellas never last long in this country anyway." Which is a new great unknown line, I think. It is also absolutely true: the last one I had here got rusty after a year.