|
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York |  | Author: Deborah Blum
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $9.56
as of 7/28/2010 14:55 MDT details
You Save: $16.39 (63%)
New (52) Used (16) from $9.55
Seller: BookHouse1
Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 15699
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 1594202435
Dewey Decimal Number: 614.1309747109041
EAN: 9781594202438
ASIN: 1594202435
Publication Date: February 18, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9781594202438 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Author Deborah Blum's Top Ten Poisons
 On a recent radio show, I heard myself telling the host "And carbon monoxide is such a good poison.” We both started laughing--there’s just something about a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist waxing enthusiastic about something so lethal. But then he became curious--“Why?” he asked. “Why do you like it so much?”
These days, as I travel the country talking about The Poisoner’s Handbook, I’m frequently asked that question or variations on it. What’s your favorite poison? What’s the perfect poison? The answer to the latter is that it doesn’t exist--except in the plots of crime novels.
But in reality, poisons really are fascinatingly wicked chemical compounds and many of them have fascinating histories as well. Just between us, then, here’s a list of my personal favorites.
1. Carbon Monoxide (really)--It’s so beautifully simple (just two atoms--one of carbon, one of oxygen) and so amazingly efficient a killer. There’s a story I tell in the book about a murder syndicate trying to kill an amazingly resilient victim. They try everything from serving him poison alcohol to running over him with a car. But in the end, it’s carbon monoxide that does him in.
2. Arsenic--This used to be the murderer’s poison of poisons, so commonly used in the early 19th century that it was nicknamed “the inheritance powder”. It’s also the first poison that forensic scientists really figured out how to detect in a corpse. And it stays in the body for centuries, which is why we keep digging up historic figures like Napoleon or U.S. President Zachary Taylor to check their remains for poison.
3. Radium--I love the fact that this rare radioactive element used to be considered good for your health. It was mixed into medicines, face creams, health drinks in the 1920s. People thought of it like a tiny glowing sun that would give them its power. Boy, were they wrong. The two scientists in my book, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, proved in 1928 that the bones of people exposed to radium became radioactive--and stayed that way for years.
4. Nicotine--This was the first plant poison that scientists learned to detect in a human body. Just an incredible case in which a French aristocrat and her husband decided to kill her brother for money. They actually stewed up tobacco leaves in a barn to brew a nicotine potion. And their amateur chemical experiments inspired a very determined professional chemist to hunt them down.
5. Chloroform--Developed for surgical anesthesia in the 19th century, this rapidly became a favorite tool of home invasion robbers. If you read newspapers around the turn of the 20th century, they’re full of accounts of people who answered a knock on the door, only to be knocked out by a chloroform soaked rag. One woman woke up to find her hair shaved off--undoubtedly sold for the lucrative wig trade.
6. Mercury--In its pure state, mercury appears as a bright silver liquid, which scatters into shiny droplets when touched. No wonder it’s nicknamed quicksilver. People used to drink it as a medicine more than 100 years ago. No, they didn’t drop dead. Those silvery balls just slid right through them. Mercury is much more poisonous if it’s mixed with other chemicals and can be absorbed by the body directly. That’s why methylmercury in fish turns out to be so risky a contaminant.
7. Cyanide--One of the most famous of the homicidal poisons and--in my opinion--not a particularly good choice. Yes, it’s amazingly lethal--a teaspoon of the pure stuff can kill in a few minutes. But it’s a violent and obvious death. In early March, in fact, an Ohio doctor was convicted of murder for putting cyanide in his wife’s vitamin supplements.
8. Aconite--A heart-stoppingly deadly natural poison. It forms in ornamental plants that include the blue-flowering monkshood. The ancient Greeks called it “the queen of poisons” and considered it so evil that they believed that it derived from the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of hell.
9. Silver--Swallowing silver nitrate probably won’t kill you but if you do it long enough it will turn you blue. One of my favorite stories (involving a silver bullet) concerns the Famous Blue Man of Barnum and Bailey’s Circus who was analyzed by one of the heroes of my book, Alexander Gettler.
10. Thallium--Agatha Christie put this poison at the heart of one of her creepiest mysteries, The Pale Horse, and I looked at it terms of a murdered family in real life. An element discovered in the 19th century, it’s a perfect homicidal poison--tasteless and odorless--except for one obvious giveaway--the victim’s hair falls out as a result of the poisoning!
Now that I’ve written this list, I realize I could probably name ten more. But I don’t want to scare you.
--Deborah Blum
Product Description
Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum follows New York City's first forensic scientists to discover a fascinating Jazz Age story of chemistry and detection, poison and murder.
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; 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 during a remarkably deadly time. A beguiling concoction that is equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten New York.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 45
 A little too much artistic licence July 23, 2010
Aubrey Kagan
I found the book interesting and certainly worth the read. However I did find some of the author's embellishments to be irritating. For instance describing the colour of the night sky or the detailed layout of the lab, I kept wandering "how could she know that?"
Also this is a technical book (albeit about chemistry and biology), but where the author describes the execution of two characters (page 174) using "a current of 2000 Volts" my antenna started flashing that there may be other possibly incorrect facts in the book. Current is measured in Amperes!
I also did find the description of the executions as not germane to the rest of the book.
 Nonfiction Perfection! July 15, 2010
D. Peloquin (Massachusetts USA)
I grabbed this audiobook on the fly because I had nothing to listen to while driving. Honestly, I was attracted to the brightly colored cover and thought that if it was just okay for the first disc or two I would be happy. But I found that after I flew through all of the discs I still wanted more!
The beauty of Blum's book is that it tells so many stories at once without ever confusing the reader. The book is laid out in chapters in which each one covers a different drug/poison from carbon monoxide to radium and almost everything in between. She doesn't trace the history of this poisons but instead just focuses on their rise in usage during the Prohibition. Without being too scientific, she describes how each poison is made and how it interacts with the body. The most interesting aspect are the stories that she brings together from primary sources on scandalous murders and everyday crimes. Into this, she weaves the story of forensic medicine and highlights the work of medical examiner Dr. Charles Norris and NYC's first toxicologist Alexander Gettler. Each drug gives these two men a new opportunity to hone their skills and show the world the need for forensics.
Personally, I am picky when it comes to non-fiction. Though I wouldn't say that I am a predominately novel reader, I do tend to pick up a work of fiction quicker than a work of non-fiction. So when I stumbled on this book, I immediately had to run out and buy my own copy. I put the CDs onto my computer and made all of the family members listen. I love how this book reads like a suspense novel and is full of intrigue, murder, and mayhem. Yet the best part is that it's all true!! My advice to you, reader, is to pick up a copy for yourself and before you know it you'll be immersed in the insane world of poisons. Even better, you'll have tons of great stories (that few others know) to tell at the next cocktail party!
Great Story July 14, 2010
Bernard Zimmerman (Central New Jersey)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very intersting account on the beginning of Forensic pathology in early New York. Two men saved innocent people of their wrongful punishment by learning and identifying poisons in crime scens. Sorry there were no photographs in the book.
 Fascinating story, but flawed science July 14, 2010
B. Sauer (Eau Claire, WI USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It remains a mystery why good popular science writing is all too rare in a society so technologically enabled as ours. So I was delighted to see that the local library had obtained a copy of The Poisoner's Handbook and it was with great expectation that I read this recounting of the early days of forensic medicine, the 1920's, the Jazz Age, in New York City. It's a fascinating story and one which continues to have relevance to our own time. Author Deborah Blum is to be commended for reminding us of the pioneering efforts of two remarkable men, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, both of whom worked tirelessly, selflessly and ultimately successfully to establish the power of science in the solving of crimes and in the service of justice. The book details not only many of the intriguing cases that these two men worked on but also describes the corrupt political machine environment in which a Medical Examiner's Office finally replaced an ineffective coroner's office in New York and Charles Norris's never-ending battle to get sufficient funding and respect for their work. Both of these men are true heros and it is clear that the author admires them immensely.
Blum's writing is direct and not technically encumbered. It's almost like spending an evening with a wonderful and knowledgeable storyteller in a neighborhood bar, with the stories getting more and more interesting as the night wears on. True, there is some jumpiness in her writing style. A story begins, switches to another issue and then returns to the original tale. Perhaps this helps to give some feeling for the kind of atmosphere that Norris and Gettler found themselves in: there were many competing issues that needed simultaneous attending and resources were slim. Personally I think this could have been handled a bit better but it is not a stylistic device that detracts markedly from the overall tale.
Given this wonderful treasure trove of material (and also TV's current fascination with forensic medicine!) it is disappointing that the book contains so many scientific missteps. Blunders that are obvious, breezy descriptions that fall apart upon inspection, and misleading parallels. Blum describes 50 milligrams of cyanide as being slightly less than 2 ounces (by that conversion ratio a single aspirin tablet would be equivalent to the meat in 3 quarter-pound hamburgers), a new synthetic methyl alcohol called methanol (these are just two names for the exact same compound), and gamma radiation consisting of a dangerous mixture of X-rays and subatomic particles (sort of true if one accepts the interconversion of mass and energy but still a startling assertion to any physicist). She correctly identifies the toxic component of the intoxicating drink Ginger Jake as the organophosphate neurotoxin tri-cresyl phosphate. But then bewilderingly parallels this with the insecticide DDT as another example of these types of compounds whose danger was only addressed in the 1960's. Except that DDT isn't an organophosphate. And its neurotoxicity, albeit slight and recognized only recently, wasn't at all the reason why it was eventually banned in the US. Not only odd, but a lost opportunity to relate that era to our own because many insecticides used today are indeed organophosphates (for example malathion) and continue to be used in the production of our food supply. I suspect that Drs Norris and Gettler would find this quite appropriate for discussion! However, the author is silent on this point. And of course the use of another organophosphate, the nerve gas Sarin, is now familiar as a terrorist threat. Then there are the "positrons" of radium, the essential component of bee venom being formic acid (it is present but there are some rather more important proteins that give bee venom its sting - and besides it is the high level of formic acid in ants that gave formic acid its name, from the Latin "formica"), and the list goes on. Writing with intent is the mark of a effective writer. With such wonderful material for raising the general awareness of toxicology, and its continued relevance to our lives today, it is unfortunate that the intent seems to lie elsewhere.
Could be Called "CSI:Roaring Twenties" July 9, 2010
Laurie A. Brown (SANDPOINT, ID USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Forensic medicine truly started in New York in 1918, with the appointment of Charles Norris as the first chief medical examiner. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, he changed the face of how murder by poison was solved, creating tests to reveal the deadly substances. Prior to this, murder by poison was hard to detect and even harder to prosecute successfully.
Each chapter of the book is devoted to a single poison, focusing on a case that the NYC lab solved. Blum describes the symptoms, the speed of death, the appearance of the internal organs and an exact description of the poison works, right down to the chemical level. She sets this against the history of the era, when poisons were much more readily available (rat poisons were abundant and could be had at any drug store; personal care products contained arsenic and other deadly ingredients, radium was in a health drink) and Prohibition made drinking wood alcohol seem a risk worth taking to some. One of the products of the lab was the correlation of blood alcohol to impairment-Prohibition turned out to be an excellent time for studying alcohol intoxication.
The book is engrossing, like reading CSI: Roaring Twenties. The tests the lab used were not simple `place a swab of tissue on a slide, insert in machine' ones. The required large amounts of tissue, which had to be finely chopped and rendered down to a slurry, then placed in test tubes and subjected to various chemicals in precise series. The lab ran on a shoestring, with Norris frequently subsidizing it with his own funds. Norris used his position to lobby for change- he was anti-Prohibition, pro-FDA having the power to ensure that products were safe and even helped in a suit against the U.S. Radium Co. by some of the workers- the Radium Girls- who were dying of the effects of working with radium, their bones crumbling, leukemia weakening them and exhaling radon gas with every breath. If you have a bit of a morbid bent and like science and true crime, pick this one up.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 45
|
|
|
Contact History Edition
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
