The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison

This might be called "Elements of Murder: a History of Metal Poison," for those are the only kinds of poisons the author is concerned with. He goes in-depth about mercury, lead, antimony, arsenic and thallium, and pays lip service to other elemental poisons.

Contrary to what the title would have you believe, this is not a true crime book but rather, simply, a history of poison -- no matter how it was delivered and why. The author, a chemist, explains the uses and abuses of the various poisons throughout history and how they interact with the human body, and provides examples of individual and mass poisonings of both the accidental and homicidal kind.

Though, as some other reviewers have noted, the writing is often clumsy, I feel I learned show more a lot. True crime/history buffs with a passing interest in chemistry would enjoy this book. For a much more in-depth, better-written book focusing on one specific element as poison, try The Arsenic Century. show less

Very interesting facts, but oddly written. There's no real conclusion, and the editing and grammar are idiosyncratic. Still, an interesting read.

A very interesting book from start to finish, including the lovely cover work, which so convinced my Mother that she thought I'd torn her book.

A very thorough explanation is given of the uses of these poisonous elements, why they're poisonous, what damage they do and what remedies can be used against them. In the section on each poison there is also at least one discription of a case where it has been used to poison people, the process that the murderer went through and how they were caught.

I also really like the chemical glossary at the end.

The weakest part of the book, oddly enough, was the first chapter on mercury but it gets better after this, particularly the sections on arsenic and stibium.

Very good and solid book.

This book was promising. My advice would be to read the introduction which is well written and interesting and ignore the rest of it. Everything that followed the introduction was of such a poor quality that I could not believe the author of the introduction to be the same as for the main body of the book. For reasons best known to the author there were digressions into vitriolic judgements on the sexual proclivities of King Charles and some quite unsustainable remarks about Isaac Newton. What a shame! I was really looking forward to this book, and whereas the introduction had some very nicely written paragraphs the main body of the book was in ungainly prose. I didn't read much beyond the third chapter -perhaps it improved.
For show more something much more worthwhile read Poisons: From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean of Calabar by Peter Macinnins. show less

This was a fun read. Each chapter is a self contained history of a poisonous element, starting with discovery, natural and biological utilization, and industrial uses. The rest of each chapter is than a series of case histories of people who used that particular element as a murder weapon. It includes a long section on serial poisoner Graham Young, whose story was told in the movie Young Poisoner's Handbook.

Although the subject is very interesting, and the anecdotes are lovely, the book does not read very well. A lot of facts are presented in a way that is not always very organized. But, overall, a very interesting book!