The Poisoner's Handbook Publisher: Penguin

This is a very interesting book about the first crime lab being set up in NYC. Have read it before, but somehow lost the book and wanted another copy. Decided a second hand book was the thing to buy and this dealer did not disappoint. The book came on time and was as described.

A great book. If you have any interest at all as to how forensic science really was jump started then this is the book for you. It reads almost like a thriller novel. It held me spellbound for hours. Can't wait to read more of her books

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This is an excellent book, written in a most readable style and with the science simply laid out, the politics of the time clearly stated and the characters all the more memorable for being real! I highly recommend this book.

before i read this book, i had occasionally wondered how dead bodies were dealt with away on back in the day. this book was so informative in that way. it was also deeply interesting to read about the establishment of medical examiner's offices, which have been so instrumental in solving previously unsolvable crimes. highly recommended!

Purchased for my daughter - she loves it!

Great book

How does one justify picking up and reading a book about how to poison people? Maybe because the Poisoner’s Handbook is set in the 1910s to 1930s New York City at a time when forensic methods were being developed to thwart the use of poison as a murder weapon. It could be because many of the poisons presented were an integral part of life at that time. Accidental deaths—whether it was by cyanide gas used for fumigation of hotels against rats, or lead as a gasoline additive, or carbon monoxide in gas lights—had a huge impact on the development of governmental agencies to protect humans from the dangers of exposure. The book is an almost-biography of two very important men who contributed to the science of forensics that is such a huge and integral part of our lives today: Charles Norris, appointed chief medical examiner in New York City in 1918, and Alexander Gettler, a toxicologist who pioneered many of the techniques used to detect poisons in human tissues. Although the book is divided into chapters that focus on specific poisons (e.g. Ch. 1: Chloroform, Ch. 5: Mercury, etc.), the cases presented are somewhat linear in time, starting from the hiring of Norris and ending with his death. The author rambled at times, so it was relatively easy to put the book down. It was just as easy to pick it back up and read a few more pages. The author did not like Prohibition and hammered its deleterious effects throughout the book, almost to the point of preachiness. She—and Norris—had good reason. Wood alcohol and denatured alcohol killed a lot of people and certainly dimmed the romance of speakeasies. But she never gave the history of why Prohibition was passed in the first place, which I thought would have helped balance that part of the story. I recommend The Poisoner’s Handbook as fascinating historical nonfiction with some great science woven throughout.