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

This is a title that wasn't quite what I expected: a low brow detailing of how people had killed each other and the high jinks that ensued with forensic examiners recreating what had happened, possibly going on to the trial. In other words I expected a very light read celebrating the stupidity of murderers. I guess there was an element of judging the book by its cover and the form factor which is shared by a lot of books of the "you won't believe what these idiot's did". I'm thinking of Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane or Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him, which were quite entertaining, but really left a lot to be desired if one wants the full picture.The Poisoner's Handbook is not such a title, and although it isn't all encompassing, it does focus very clearly on how forensic science / medical investigation was born. It's basic structure is that it focuses on a poison and then chronicles why it became an issue against the social backdrop and the nature of the poison and then the work that was done to detect it, as well as bringing in the human element of how the poison was used in homicide, suicide or accidents.Over the course of the book, it deals with the key individuals, the mayor's of New York, Norris (as the Chief Medical Examiner) and Gettler (the toxicologist), joined by a supporting cast of victims, crooks and other law enforcement people.Unlike my expected celebration of stupidity or humanities lesser qualities (greed, hate and such) this book is really a celebration of the intellect, of the hard work of Norris and Gettler to make forensics what it is today, while retaining the social context of the times as they relate.The book is an engaging read, written for a broad audience, because it is so much more about the people and their actions, rather than complex chemical interactions, and where these do arise they are dealt with easily and quickly so that anyone can follow. That is not to say that this is glossed over, rather that it is not the focus of the book, and as such not missed.This is a great read, quick and easy, fun and despite it's grim backdrop quite uplifting.

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.

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.