The Poisoner's Handbook

Just finished this one. Incredibly interesting! It's a nonfiction book that chronicles the "birth" of forensic medicine - i.e., testing corpses for poisons. Largely follows the early careers of two individuals: Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler. Norris = the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City (the first one who really got the job because he was a doctor and because of his skill, rather than because he was related to the mayor). Gettler = the chief toxicologist under Norris.

Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a separate poison (carbon monoxide, alcohol poisoning, arsenic, etc.). However, some of the chapters overlap. For instance the various forms of alcohol poisoning recur, and sometimes were found in conjunction with the other poisons. Each of the chapters talks about a variety of cases which the doctors used to determine the poison, and tells of the various tests available to test to the poisons, and how these two doctors determined the tests. Because the time period covered by the book was during the Depression and Prohibition years, there's considerable emphasis given to alcohol poisoning, and the efforts of the federal government to make alcohol even more poisonous (in an effort to convince people to stop drinking it).

Overall, the book was incredibly interesting. The author is a "wanna-be" chemist herself. (In the "author's note" at the end, she writes "A chemistry lab is a dangerous place for an absentminded daydreamer of a student - in other words, me.") She is able to explain the chemical reactions caused by the various poisons on a level that makes them understandable to the normal person. If you're into CSI, you'll definitely like this.