Deborah Blum

This is a very well written book about the fight for food safety legislation in the U.S. It is clear that the writer is a journalist because of the amount of research she undertook and because of the clear picture she drew of the situation without the writing ever becoming dry or boring. She provided information on the almost unbelievable lengths manufacturers went to in order to make food more cheaply. And just what they added to food. The author also provided the right amount of context show more about the times to give a broader perspective on the issues.

Dr. Wiley was a man to be admired for many reasons. As a former federal employee, I'm impressed with how he was able to maintain his position despite lack of support from his Secretary and, at times, a similar lack from the President. Yet he build networks effectively and I admire the way he worked with women's organizations, recognizing the power of their voices in this issue. He also kept his eye firmly on his goal, ignoring "lesser" issues such as the appointment of a rival colleague to usurp his authority.

There are many parallels to today's society, notably the calls for deregulation in many sectors. This book shows the value of government oversight. There are still places in the world where research is buried or ignored, where the truth is not told to consumers or the public. We must continue to be vigilant. show less

This book was on my TBR for years because science, history, and true crime are all interests and a book that blended all three sounded great. And it was! There’s a lot of information, presented without feeling like a lot, nothing’s portrayed too sensationally or sentimentally (I always worry), and Blum’s style’s easy to follow and fairly fast to read.

There wasn’t really anything in this that wasn’t enjoyable, if one can say one enjoys reading about murders and dead bodies. I show more liked learning the chemistry behind poisons like arsenic, carbon monoxide, and alcohol and the detail Blum went into not only in terms of what was known then, but what’s known now, and I liked that she laid the book out with each chapter or two tracking a specific poison. I also enjoyed learning how the scientists came up with the tests and methods and standards they needed to be able to prove and prosecute the crimes, and how New York’s medical examiner’s office kind of set the standard for the rest of the US. There’s a lot to the science side of this that basically ranged from “that’s a cool thing I didn’t know” to “wow, really?!”

Blum weaves the crimes and deaths in nicely too. Every toxin has a case or two associated with it, which illustrate how the poisons got used and the curve balls the cases could throw at the M.E. They also bring the 1920s and 1930s to life, in a way, because Blum takes the time to describe the players and the setting, pull from trial transcripts and news articles, and digress into things like factory safety or the ingredients of rat poisons or the alcoholic arms race that was Prohibition. It’s never a fully realised history—you want a different book for that—but it’s a really neat window into the era and I finished the book knowing much more than I did when I started.

She also does a great job bringing the M.E. and chief toxicologist to life, along with their struggles against apathy, ignorance, corruption, and greed. They didn’t have an easy go of it revolutionising their department, let alone their field, and that makes their achievements that much cooler, their disappointments that much sadder. This book is, among other things, something of a bio of these two men, and a portrait of the sort of politics and law enforcement they were facing. Again, I’m sure it only gives the briefest overview, like with the criminal cases, but it’s a side of the 1920s and Prohibition you don’t see.

In short, while there’s nothing much to see me raving about this book, nothing that was so darn superb I have to tell everyone to read this, The Poisoner’s Handbook is absolutely as it should be and a good, informative, interesting read. It’s a well-told story on a cool subject, that’s guaranteed to have at least one fact you didn’t know per chapter, and if I’ve made you interested in reading it, then you should! I’m not hesitant to rec this at all! But do bear in mind my … bear in mind, because there were a few moments I had to pause at, for squeamishness reasons.

To bear in mind: Contains moderate to graphic descriptions of autopsies, chemical testing of human remains, and the effects of poisons on the human body. Also murders, attempted murders, poisonings, corrupt officials, lax job safety standards, and cruelty to and deaths of animals.

7/10 show less

After a drunk joke of a coroner is booted from office in New York City, Charles Norris arrives in 1918 to revolutionize the office of the medical examiner, hiring a prolific toxicologist named Alexander Gettler. Despite the corruption raging in the city's government, Norris and Gettler are dedicated to their task and above the reproach of the law. Norris grows the medical examiner's office into an integral part of murder investigations, with Gettler probing the frontiers of toxicology in an show more effort to keep up with the innovations of bootleggers, murderous poisoners, and the government's Prohibition chemists who are trying to make alcohol as dangerous as possible (and succeeding).

Each chapter centers around a particular poison, new at the time, and highlights cases that brought to light the use, abuse, and specific anatomical effects of the substance. Just as intriguing as the killers and killings are the creativity and fortitude Norris and Gettler employed in finding solutions.

Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, but she's got some serious suspense chops. Also? I was appalled to read the great lengths our government went to in order to stop people from drinking alcohol during Prohibition, in essence poisoning the citizenry with increasingly lethal processes and chemicals. show less

This book by Deborah Blum came out to great acclaim a few years ago, and I can see why it drew so much attention. The Poisoner's Handbook is an excellent example of creative nonfiction, a book that delves into intense scientific data yet is completely approachable by a layman. Most of the book revolves around two key figures in the New York coroner's office: chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler. These two wrote the book on forensic medicine--literally. show more Their medical studies were exhaustive as they tried to figure out how to measure a variety of poisons within the human body, creating a new kind of science. The background of the Jazz Age confounded their studies; people play up the allure of the speakeasy, but it was also a time filled with deaths by toxic wood alcohol and dangerous additives added (on purpose) by the Prohibition federal government.

Chapters on poisons include:
Chloroform
Wood Alcohol
Cyanides
Arsenic
Mercury
Carbon Monoxide
Methyl Alcohol
Radium
Ethyl Alcohol
Thallium

For me, the chapter on Radium was the most tragic. I have read about the "Radium Girls" before, the 1920s clock dial painters who licked their paintbrushes and ended up dying agonizing deaths as their bones splintered apart. There are a few points near the end where the book began to drag because of heavier science and fewer case studies, but overall the book was fascinating and highly readable. This isn't a read for anyone with a weak stomach as it often talks about pureeing brain matter or other cadaver examinations, and there is also testing on live animals. However, as an author, this is definitely a resource book I intend to keep on my shelf show less