The Poisoner's Handbook

Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

By: Deborah Blum

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City.

In The Poisoner's Handbook, Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook---chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler---investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, Barnum and Bailey's Famous Blue Man, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle, and Norris and Gettler work with a creativity that rivals that of the most imaginative murderer, creating revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. Yet in the tricky game of toxins, even science can't always be trusted, as proven when one of Gettler's experiments erroneously sets free a suburban housewife later nicknamed "America's Lucretia Borgia" to continue her nefarious work.

From the vantage of Norris and Gettler's laboratory in the infamous Bellevue Hospital it becomes clear that killers aren't the only toxic threat to New Yorkers. Modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner. Automobiles choke the city streets with carbon monoxide, while potent compounds such as morphine can be found on store shelves in products ranging from pesticides to cosmetics. Prohibition incites a chemist's war between bootleggers and government chemists, while in Gotham's crowded speakeasies each round of cocktails becomes a game of Russian roulette. Norris and Gettler triumph over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice.

©2010 Deborah Blum (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Nominee - Best Nonfiction Audiobook, 2011

"Blum effectively balances the fast-moving detective story with a clear view of the scientific advances that her protagonists brought to the field. Caviar for true-crime fans and science buffs alike." (<>Kirkus)
"With the pacing and rich characterization of a first-rate suspense novelist, Blum makes science accessible and fascinating." (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)
"Blum interlaces true-crime stories with the history of forensic medicine and the chemistry of various poisons…. [A] readable and enjoyable book.... Highly recommended." (Library Journal)

I believe I've listened it a dozen times

I love Deborah Blum she draws you in and keeps you interested through out the book. Man I'm glad i don't live back then, but maybe in a 100 years they will say the about us.

Gruesome but fascinating!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have already recommended this audiobook to several friends. It is the kind of listen that keeps you in the car after you have parked it and shut off the engine.

What other book might you compare The Poisoner's Handbook to and why?

The books compares neatly to and in some ways complements The Murder of the Century, since Poisoner's Bible takes up in NYC about 15-20 years after the main events of the Murder of the Century took place in NYC. Between the two, you can see some major shifts in the way that criminal investigations were being conducted.

What three words best describe Coleen Marlo’s performance?

Mediocre, mediocre, and mediocre. She created minor but annoying distractions by mispronouncing the names of chemical elements and so forth. Her voice is pleasant and well-enough modulated, but either pronounciation should be checked ahead of time, or narrators who know something about the subject should be engaged.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Moved isn't the right word. Rather I was especially interested by the descriptions of the on-going mouse/mousetrap developments between government scientists, who were deliberately adding toxins to the already dangerous industrial alcohol in order to discourage people from drinking during prohibition and the (ahem) entrepreneurial chemists, who were trying to remove or mask the taste of those toxins so they could make money by selling hooch during prohibition. By some perverse quirk of human nature, one part of the public response to all of this was that the numbers of alcoholics, drunk-driving incidents, and alcohol-related deaths all apparently sky-rocketed as prohibition went on.

The new medical examiners and their chemists, the real subjects and heroes of the book, then had their work cut out, learning to track all these toxins through, mostly, cadavers and parts of cadavers.

Any additional comments?

If you liked the Ghost Map, or the Murder of the Century, you will probably enjoy this, too.

A good History

What made the experience of listening to The Poisoner's Handbook the most enjoyable?

This is a history of an exotic topic. If you like to read this kind of thing to make yourself a more well rounded person, you'll enjoy it. If you have a medical background, it will be even more enjoyable as the medical details will not present a challenge.

Hmmm

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes...I browsed through the book, here I get a chance to dive into the topic more.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Poisoner's Handbook?

Linking some of the Murders ( by poisoning) in the story to one person.

What aspect of Coleen Marlo’s performance would you have changed?

None

Did The Poisoner's Handbook inspire you to do anything?

no.....

Interesting content

Overall, I enjoyed this book so much I had to listen to it twice. There was such detailed info, and the stories spanned decades. Quite a history of where forensic science started. I have a new appreciation of that field.
The only reason this isn't a 4+ star review is the reader. I've listened to many books now, and when a female quotes a male, some are more successful than others. This is a case of NOT being totally successful. If you can get past the' McGruff the Crime Dog' kind of voice the reader uses when intoning men, you'll be fine.
The stories are well worth suffering through that little flaw.

Disjointed

Well-written and interesting subject matter, but tried to take on too many themes and was poorly organized. It’s almost three books in one: murder by poisoning, the birth or forensic science, and the untold horrors or prohibition. I almost forgot the random dash of radium. However, these themes don’t mesh seamlessly.

A very interesting read!

I saw the documentary some years back and thought it was very interesting. When I saw the audiobook, I dove right in. Like most cases, it's better than the documentary. Deborah is a great writer and did a great job in researching for this book. It's unfortunate that so many animals had to die to further Gettlers understanding of poisons.

The Poisoned Past

First of all, kudos to Deborah Blum and her publishers for picking Coleen Marlo to narrate this book. Marlo is fantastic narrating Amy Stewart’s “Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects” and “The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World’s Great Drinks,” pronouncing complex scientific names and using foreign pronunciations easily (well, at least in the five languages I know well enough to know if she’s saying the words correctly.)

Blum’s “The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York”. Rather than focusing solely on a particular crime or group of particular poisoners, Blum’s chapters are (in order): Chloroform; Wood Alcohol; Cyanides; Arsenic; Mercury; Carbon Monoxide Part I; Methyl Alcohol; Radium; Ethyl Alcohol; Carbon Monoxide Part II; and Thallium.

“The Poisoner’s Handbook” describes how the poisons were developed and used, and how the forensic science developed techniques to uncover the poisons. Blum weaves the tales of the scientists who worked so hard to make sure that cruel, careful murders by poisoners were detected. She also discusses a plethora of unintentional poisonings, and the public health risks that caused them.

The biggest cause of accidental poisonings was, in Jazz Age New York, prohibition. Blum describes New York City in the early 20th century so completely, I can see it in my mind, with horses and buggies, Model-T Fords, and a scrum of long-vanished air pollution.

"The Poisoner's Handbook" is lively and intriguing, and well worth the listen.

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History, biography, and science - fantastic.

I heard about this book on a science podcast, so I expected a good science read but I was pleasantly surprised by the engaging stories. The author frames the material by entwining biography, history, and science together in a wonderfully efficient, illuminating, and entertaining way. The author has identified a historical moment during which a perfect storm of influences came together, which is what I look for in a history book.

It is not for the squeamish, but the author has a way of delighting in the details of how poisons work in the body, while remaining sympathetic to the victims. There is an enthusiasm for both biological science and history here that is delightful and rare.


The narrator gives an eccentric performance, but she grew on me and became part of the quirky charm of the book.

Delicious!

This book was very intriguing and informative. I listened to it for the juicy murders and scandal but the part that sticks with me is the part about Prohibition. I didn't know much about Prohibition and the different kinds of (poison) alcohol people drank during that era. The book explains all about Prohibition and how the government accidentally became the biggest poisoner of all because they tried to make other kinds of alcohol, used for industry, undrinkable. People drank it anyway, and died.

Of course there is no shortage of juicy family murders, too!