The Poisoner's Handbook

The Poisoner's Handbook: murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum  319 pp.

This book tells the story of the creation of the "modern" Medical Examiner's Office in New York City during the days of Prohibition and the Great Depression. Chief Medical Examiner, Charles Norris, and chemist, Alexander Gettler, find ways to trace what were once untraceable poisons in human tissue so that the evidence could be used in court to prove guilt or innocence. In the process they must fight the political machine, nonbelievers in their science, bootleggers selling deadly forms of alcohol, and the practice of selling deadly poisons openly on store shelves. In the process they discover the causes of horrifying and unusual deaths, including those of a mother who poisoned her children and her own mother, the tragic young women who died of Radium poison after working in a factory painting luminous watch dials, and other odd and/or all to common causes of death in that era.

This book is very interesting. However, I listened to the audiobook of it and it left much to be desired. I was frequently annoyed by mispronunciations ("infant-esimal" for infinitesimal, "acidic acid" instead of acetic acid--aren't all acids acidic?--among other glaring mistakes) There was also the complete misstatement about Dr. Norris sending a "one letter sentence" which should have been a "one sentence letter". The worst part, however, was the narrator's use of a voice more suited to a stereotypical Brooklyn cab driver whenever she was quoting Dr. Gettler. Fortunately the story was interesting enough for me to continue listening in spite of the problems with the audiobook version.