Deborah Blum

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Ghost Hunters chronicles the dramatic story of New York City's first forensic scientists to describe Jazz Age poisoning cases, including a family's inexplicable balding, Barnum and Bailey's Blue Man and the crumbling bones of factory workers. Reprint.

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

The Poisoner's Handbook

The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. 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. Chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler create revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. From the vantage of their laboratory it also becomes clear that murderers aren't the only toxic threat--modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner.

murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York

The poisoner's handbook

Wynter

Lovely book on the birth of modern forensics. When two men - Carles Norris and Alexander Gettler, - took it upon themselves to revolutionize toxicology science and the methods used by medical examiners, murder by poison ran rampant in New York City. Prior to their contributions it was incredibly easy to get away with poisoning, because no real tests were created to find harmful substances in dead tissue. Often, medical examiners weren't even real physicians, but incompetent officials, guessing the cause of death and taking bribes to cover up crimes. Norris and Gettler introduced structure into the pathology office, argued with the Mayor's Office for adequate budget, used multiple control experiments to offer bulletproof evidence, and contributed personal time and finances to keep their department out of mediocrity. 

The book looks at multiple cases, broken down by the type of poison used, all flowing in a chronological order. These include intentional crimes of passion, accidental deaths, government-sponsored introduction of poisons into liqueur during the Prohibition Era, and the early days of FDA's inadequate treatment of harmful ingredients in medicine and cosmetics. There is drama, suspense, bootleggers, conniving vixens, odd accidents, insurance forgers, and scientific breakthroughs at every turn. Norris and Gettler tackle it all like the awesome, nerdy Batman and Robin of NYC. Once I picked up The Poisoner's Handbook I had a hard time putting it down.

Kirsten Simkiss

While it was outside of my usual fiction reads, The Poisoner's Handbook was still a very interesting glimpse into a past. The book lays out a time fraught with corporate greed, alcoholic desperation, and accidental deaths due to things people simply didn't know yet, things people like me take for granted. Ultimately, I know I probably will never reread this book, but it was definitely worth reading once. I'm giving this book an even three stars because I felt like it was a little disorganized and that the chapter headers were sometimes almost irrelevant, but overall it's definitely and interesting subject to learn more about.

My favorite part about the book were the anecdotal cases of poisoning that related directly to the chapter title. The cases that involved the said poisons were interesting and horrifying examples of how things went, from the discovery of the victims to the end results of the court cases and how science played into the cases. It was also interesting to me that it was so wildly debated for so long that the science the New York forensic touted was putting out good scientific methods and techniques for proving or disproving poison-related deaths.

The most horrifying, albeit fascinating, chapter for me was definitely the one on radium. The list of products people used radium in for themselves made me physically cringe. I felt so much horror on the behalf of the dial-painting girls. I cannot imagine the pain and panic they must have felt as their bodies literally disintegrated. Back in those times, of course, no one really knew the dangers when it first came out. It was a miracle rock! No one really knew that it would cause such devastation with repeated exposure to the element. It took years for people to really start to feel the horrible effects, and by then it was too late.

My main complaint for the book was the organization of the chapters. It usually opened with the start to a poisoning case using that same poison in the chapter title. Then it would go into some history of the poison and the forensics lab in New York revolving around Norris and Gettler. After that, you'd get how it works on a scientific level, which was difficult to understand if you're not well versed in the science of it. Then it would do more history. A little more on the case. More history again. The back and forth format of it was distracting and sometimes hard to follow. And sometimes the book would start talking about an entirely unrelated poison, usually more on the alcoholic poisons during prohibition. I honestly would have preferred to read the book in a more linear manner. If it stuck to the history of the poison first, then the science, then the anecdotal cases, I feel like the book would benefit. Because seriously, it did so much ping-ponging between the three topics.

It's a good book, but I doubt I'll ever reread this one. Still, it's definitely a topic of interest for a lot of people so I've passed my copy onto my mother who has in turn promised to pass it to one of her coworkers when she's done. Still, I feel like this book could be organized better than it was.

John Rodwell

I can't remember exactly when I bought this book, but I got it from my church's flea market. I held onto the book for years without touching it. Then, in 2020, when UW-Platteville shut down and sent everyone home I reckoned with my bookshelf. By the end of the book, I cried from the sheer profundity of scientific progress and humility contained within this beautiful book. Nothing quite like an underdog story, eh? I was moved so much by the book that I wrote a review for our school newspaper.

(https://uwpexponent.com/opinions/2020...)

DNF
Super bummed! I was so excited about this book but the writing style is too dry and boring compared to the title. Tried it in hardcover and audio but it just wasn’t worth my time😔
I really would love to enjoy a book about the birth of forensic science and was excited about it due to my science background (research) but the editing was horrid!!

Wish it was better

Tracey O’Rourke

I found this to be a well written and very interesting account of the beginning of forensic science and especially forensic toxicology. And I learned that there was a speakeasy owner named Guinan, leading to the name of the character in Star Trek, which was a bonus.

Really readable non-fiction, one of my favorite types of book.

I'm actually torn between a 2 or 3 star rating, so call it a 2.5 rating.

I wanted to love this. I actually started out really liking this, which was awesome. The facts are good, the science is interesting if you're into detailed descriptions, and otherwise it is just something good to read. The politics are interesting enough as well. Blum lost me in the middle.

The issue is that we focus so much on the Prohibition, ethyl and methyl alcohol. I get it, it was a big deal back then, but I honestly thought I messed up and jumped backwards in the ebook because I could swear that I had read the same information earlier. The organization also fell apart in the latter half of the book. Even though the chapter was on one poison, we'd interrupt the story to again talk about Prohibition and ethyl alcohol. We get it, tons of people died and the government made decisions that probably led to more deaths all while blaming the drunks. This wasn't just about the Prohibition though, and I would have been more interested if it was grouped by topic instead of the years. I don't care what people felt about repealing Prohibition, and frankly after the first chapter about it I was rolling my eyes or skimming. Originally I had wanted to read more about Prohibition and the investigators via other books, but after this I think I'm set.

And the other issue for me was that I had already read Radium Girls, which was an entire chapter that I could skip about Radium. Nothing new seemed to be told that I didn't know (and obviously, not Blum's fault, but good to know if you've read Radium Girls).

I mean it wasn't a bad read. Just be prepared for a history lesson on Prohibition and politics.

Laura

Don't read this book while eating. I mean, unless you're unbothered by lengthy descriptions of minced brain tissue and various experiments done on dogs. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Also, I know nothing about science. I'm not one of those people who watches one episode of CSI and professes to be an expert in the field of forensic science. I do, however, happen to love true crime books and do have some interest in the work of forensic science as a result. In fact, true crime was how I got into nonfiction in the first place, reading books like In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City and, of course, my beloved Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which is the only book I can reread on a regular basis (in fact, I like to have a little annual reread of it every year from June to September). So I picked up The Poisoner's Handbook hoping, yes, for some insight on various poisons and the birth of forensic toxicology but mostly for the murder stories. 

The science in this book was easy to understand for someone like me, who gets confused rather easily when it comes to science and math (yes, I know I fully embrace my gender stereotype). I also really appreciated how the science is woven rather seamlessly into the narrative, unlike books like Girls of the Atomic City, which broke up the potentially interesting narrative with entire chapters purely dedicated to dry science. It was more on par with The Devil in the White City, another book that successfully interwove fact with narrative. I will admit though, after awhile I felt a bit bored with the constant tales of experiments and wanted to get back to the murder stories. 

Continue reading this review on my blog here: http://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/20...

Helen Bright

Allison Dempsey

Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie"—The New York Observer A fascinating Jazz Age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice. In 2014, PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE released a film based on The Poisoner's Handbook.

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

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