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The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

4.6 out of 5 stars 2,074

Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie." —The New York Observer

“The Poisoner’s Handbook breathes deadly life into the Roaring Twenties.” —Financial Times

“Reads like science fiction, complete with suspense, mystery and foolhardy guys in lab coats tipping test tubes of mysterious chemicals into their own mouths.” —NPR: What We're Reading

A fascinating Jazz Age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice.

In 2014, PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE released a film based on The Poisoner's Handbook.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: Author Deborah Blum's Top Ten Poisons

On a recent radio show, I heard myself telling the host "And carbon monoxide is such a good poison.” We both started laughing--there’s just something about a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist waxing enthusiastic about something so lethal. But then he became curious--“Why?” he asked. “Why do you like it so much?”

These days, as I travel the country talking about
The Poisoner’s Handbook, I’m frequently asked that question or variations on it. What’s your favorite poison? What’s the perfect poison? The answer to the latter is that it doesn’t exist--except in the plots of crime novels.

But in reality, poisons really are fascinatingly wicked chemical compounds and many of them have fascinating histories as well. Just between us, then, here’s a list of my personal favorites.

1. Carbon Monoxide (really)--It’s so beautifully simple (just two atoms--one of carbon, one of oxygen) and so amazingly efficient a killer. There’s a story I tell in the book about a murder syndicate trying to kill an amazingly resilient victim. They try everything from serving him poison alcohol to running over him with a car. But in the end, it’s carbon monoxide that does him in.

2. Arsenic--This used to be the murderer’s poison of poisons, so commonly used in the early 19th century that it was nicknamed “the inheritance powder”. It’s also the first poison that forensic scientists really figured out how to detect in a corpse. And it stays in the body for centuries, which is why we keep digging up historic figures like Napoleon or U.S. President Zachary Taylor to check their remains for poison.

3. Radium--I love the fact that this rare radioactive element used to be considered good for your health. It was mixed into medicines, face creams, health drinks in the 1920s. People thought of it like a tiny glowing sun that would give them its power. Boy, were they wrong. The two scientists in my book, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, proved in 1928 that the bones of people exposed to radium became radioactive--and stayed that way for years.

4. Nicotine--This was the first plant poison that scientists learned to detect in a human body. Just an incredible case in which a French aristocrat and her husband decided to kill her brother for money. They actually stewed up tobacco leaves in a barn to brew a nicotine potion. And their amateur chemical experiments inspired a very determined professional chemist to hunt them down.

5. Chloroform--Developed for surgical anesthesia in the 19th century, this rapidly became a favorite tool of home invasion robbers. If you read newspapers around the turn of the 20th century, they’re full of accounts of people who answered a knock on the door, only to be knocked out by a chloroform soaked rag. One woman woke up to find her hair shaved off--undoubtedly sold for the lucrative wig trade.

6. Mercury--In its pure state, mercury appears as a bright silver liquid, which scatters into shiny droplets when touched. No wonder it’s nicknamed quicksilver. People used to drink it as a medicine more than 100 years ago. No, they didn’t drop dead. Those silvery balls just slid right through them. Mercury is much more poisonous if it’s mixed with other chemicals and can be absorbed by the body directly. That’s why methylmercury in fish turns out to be so risky a contaminant.

7. Cyanide--One of the most famous of the homicidal poisons and--in my opinion--not a particularly good choice. Yes, it’s amazingly lethal--a teaspoon of the pure stuff can kill in a few minutes. But it’s a violent and obvious death. In early March, in fact, an Ohio doctor was convicted of murder for putting cyanide in his wife’s vitamin supplements.

8. Aconite--A heart-stoppingly deadly natural poison. It forms in ornamental plants that include the blue-flowering monkshood. The ancient Greeks called it “the queen of poisons” and considered it so evil that they believed that it derived from the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of hell.

9. Silver--Swallowing silver nitrate probably won’t kill you but if you do it long enough it will turn you blue. One of my favorite stories (involving a silver bullet) concerns the Famous Blue Man of Barnum and Bailey’s Circus who was analyzed by one of the heroes of my book, Alexander Gettler.

10. Thallium--Agatha Christie put this poison at the heart of one of her creepiest mysteries, The Pale Horse, and I looked at it terms of a murdered family in real life. An element discovered in the 19th century, it’s a perfect homicidal poison--tasteless and odorless--except for one obvious giveaway--the victim’s hair falls out as a result of the poisoning!

Now that I’ve written this list, I realize I could probably name ten more. But I don’t want to scare you.

--Deborah Blum

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Blum's spine-tingling thriller about early 20th-century poisoners, their innovations in undetectable killing methods, and New York City's first medical examiner and toxicologist who documented the telltale signs of poisoning is given a theatrical twist in Coleen Marlo's reading. Her voice is smoky and tinged with humor, irony, and light mocking as she revisits the rudimentary methods of the murder and equally rudimentary science of the Jazz Age. She's an able guide to the science and her voices are pitch-perfect—especially her humorously masculine characterizations of Blum's male subjects. A Penguin Press hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 14). (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004P1JDM6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (January 25, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 25, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1553 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 2,074

About the author

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Deborah Blum
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Deborah Blum has always considered herself a southerner, although she has no real Southern accent and was born in Illinois (Urbana, 1954). Still, her parents moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana when she was two, and to Athens, Georgia, when she was twelve. And she has always believed that the Southern culture of story-telling had a real influence on the way she uses narrative in writing about science.

After high school, Blum received a journalism degree from the University of Georgia in 1976, with a double minor in anthropology and political science. She worked for two newspapers in Georgia and one in Florida (St. Petersburg Times) before deciding to become a science writer and going to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. A University of Wisconsin fellow, she received her degree in 1982 and moved to California to work for McClatchy newspapers, first in Fresno and then in Sacramento. During her 13 years, at The Sacramento Bee, she won numerous awards for her work, culminating in the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in beat reporting for a series investigating ethical issues in primate research.

The series became her first book, The Monkey Wars (Oxford, 1994), which was named a Library Journal Best Sci-Tech book of the year. Three years later, she published Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women (Viking, 1997), which was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her 2002 book, Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection, (Perseus Books) was a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She followed that with Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death (Penguin Press, 2006). Her latest book, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, will be published in February 2010.

Blum is also the co-editor of a widely used guide to science writing, A Field Guide for Science Writers (Oxford, 2006). She is currently the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches science journalism, creative-non-fiction, magazine writing and investigative reporting. A past-president of the National Association of Science Writers, she currently serves as the North American board member to the World Federation of Science Journalists. She also sits on the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and on the board of trustees for the Society for Society and the Public.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
2,074 global ratings
Enjoyed it and learned a few things from it
5 Stars
Enjoyed it and learned a few things from it
While this book has been around for some time, it is a must read for anyone involved/interested in the forensic science/forensic medicine fields. It provides educational facts, as well as, raw history of the use of poisons in the U.S. during the early decades of 1900's. It is a plus if you are a chemistry buff, it will keep you turning the pages till the end. Enjoyed it and learned a few things from it. Great read.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024
Made my husband a bit nervous when this showed up-but I found the book fascinating from beginning to end. Makes you appreciate the FDA
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011
As someone with a chemistry background who loves the written word, I highly recommend this. It's compelling, a good story, and didn't make me groan over the technical parts - and no, you don't need to know anything more than that certain elements are almost always poisonous and that others are only poisonous in specific combinations to read this. From a technical perspective, my only complaint is that there is a chapter for both wood and methyl alcohol, even though they're chemically the same thing - the carbon monoxide chapters are broken into Part I and II, why not methanol? But, that's a very minor quibble, over the chapter titles. Considering how important it was as a preventable cause of death during Prohibition, the years covered in the book, it definitely deserves multiple chapters.

Really interesting read. I used to read a lot of Agatha Christie, and it never occurred to me that the glossing over the inquest results was anything other than plot expediency - sure, obviously the atomic identification tests that we did in Analytical Chemistry weren't available before quantum theory, but I always thought there had been more routine test tube determinations for arsenic, etc. Major duh on my part that just because people recognized that things were poisonous doesn't mean they were able to prove it.

Prohibition, man, if it didn't already seem like the one of the stupidest things our country has ever done, this book will solidify the impression. I can't help but wonder why so many people risked death and disability when all you have to do to make your own is to put a pinch of yeast in a bottle of fruit juice, but then meh, desperate people without knowledge will do desperate things. And that should never be underestimated, at the risk of massive body counts. Just because someone chose to break a law that harmed no one but themself doesn't mean that they deserve to die, painfully at that. Desperate people in desperate circumstance do dumb things. But, my goodness, am I ever glad that we can detect these things nowadays. And more importantly, detect the absence of poisons, as the innocent people acquitted on newly developed medical evidence is the best.

Very well written, compelling story telling, not overly technical, but no face-palm moments from someone who is, which is very high praise.
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2023
The Poisoner’s Handbook is a good piece of historic research into the 20th Century evolution of Forensic Science in the Northeastern United States, and also the ills that washed across America as substitute brews proliferated during The Prohibition.

As the 1900s began, the Forensics industry held little sway in analyzing and abating poisonings in America. At the time there was little standardization of the science and courts did not respect the authoritative standing of forensics work. That began to change in 1918 when Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler came together in the New York City coroner’s office, where various poisonous elements were thoroughly detected, recorded, analyzed, measured, and the respective identifying effects catalogued to the point that the entire forensics industry grew in reliability and legal stature in the courts.

The book broadens considerably in geographic scope when it outlines and describes the ill impacts across the country during Prohibition when illegal bootleggers clandestinely marketed substitute liquors – many of which were chemically erratic, dangerous and outright poisonous.

Not being a scientifically focused type of reader, I found this was a book I had to put aside every so often, as there is quite a stack of different poisonings to go through over the lengthy period covered by the book; but I would ways come back to appreciate the work for its preservation of the developmental steps within this important science.
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023
I read this book several years ago in my book club. I have given it as a gift twice now and both women who have read it since have liked it a lot. Very informative and interesting.
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2024
Fascinating look at Prohibition and early forensic science. 100 years ago anyone could be a medical examiner. We literally have Norris and Gettler to thank for the modern state of forensics. It was fascinating to read about how the government tried to enforce prohibition - even adding literal poisons. Gross misuse of government powers in every field of American life. Still true.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Ernesto B.
5.0 out of 5 stars alta calidad
Reviewed in Mexico on January 27, 2024
genial
Heather
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
Reviewed in Canada on August 7, 2023
I couldn't put this down, and actually just purchased my own copy to reread it after borrowing it from a friend years ago. Even if you think you only love fiction, this book is for everyone. I've recommended time and again and the response is always positive. I found myself stopping throughout to look up real news headlines and details of historical events intertwined with the evolution of the chemical forensic science. A must have for your library!
Katie King
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2023
I'd previously took this book out at my college library at a science tutors recommendation however I'd been unable to finish it due to assignment deadlines and finishing college. I couldn't stop thinking about it after I left so I ended up ordering this copy to finish it off. Great read, really interesting.
Client d'Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Pour travailler mon anglais
Reviewed in France on February 3, 2019
De temps en temps, avec l'aide du site reverso context, je travaille à traduire en français un ouvrage en anglais, ç'est comme de la gymnastique mentale pour moi.
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Nightreader
5.0 out of 5 stars Ein "Whodunnit" ganz besonderer Art: Detektive und Forensiker gegen die "großen Fische"
Reviewed in Germany on September 2, 2018
Dieser faszinierend geschriebene Tatsachenbericht handelt nicht von den kleinen Fischen - von Hans, der seine Frau erschlug, um seine Geliebte zu heiraten; von Uschi, die ihren Vater vergiftete, um ihn zu beerben. Er handelt von den Großen Fischen. Von den Herstellern radiumhältiger Leuchtfarbe, die gleichgültig zusahen, wie ihre Arbeiterinnen ahnungslos mit der tödlichen Substanz hantierten. Von der Autofirma, in der es als Witz kursierte, dass ein bestimmte Fertigungshalle "das Narrenkastl" genannt wurden, weil dort so viele Arbeiter den Verstand verloren - nämlich diejenigen, die mit dem neu erfundenen verbleiten Benzin arbeiteten. Von der US-Regierung, die in den Zeiten der Prohibition Alkoholvorräte mit Absicht vergiftete, obwohl man wusste, dass die Kunden sie trotzdem trinken würden. Und von den tapferen Männern und Frauen, die sich dieser Art Kriminalität entgegenstellten, alle ihre Kenntnisse aufboten, um dem ein Ende zu machen. Ein Buch, das man nicht weglegen kann!
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