A review by astropova
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

dark informative relaxing medium-paced

4.5

Awesome book! The material was very interesting, particularly in how the science, history, and true crime were blended together. I loved the writing too and found the sort-of narrative tone to be very easy to read and get lost in, like an actual novel. Reading nonfiction books often feels like a slog to me (even if I'm interested in the subject matter), but I definitely didn't have that problem with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical content

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Child death and Suicide

The animal cruelty and death are not done/described for the purposes of being cruel or evil, but there are several clinical descriptions of experimentation on animals that leads to their deaths.