The Poisoner's Handbook
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| Author | Deborah Blum |
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| Cover artist | Marysarah Quinn |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science, True crime, history |
| Publisher | Penguin Press |
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Publication date
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2010 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback), hardcover |
| Pages | 336 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 2009026461 |
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York is a New York Times best-selling non-fiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum that was released by Penguin Press in 2010.
In 1918, New York City appointed Charles Norris, Bellevue Hospital's chief pathologist, as its first scientifically trained medical examiner. The book, about Norris and Alexander Gettler, the city's first toxicologist, describes the Jazz Age's poisoning cases. Before the two began working in the medical examiner's office, Blum pointed out in her book, poisoners could get away with murder. The book covers the years from 1915 to 1936, which Blum described as a "coming-of-age" for forensic toxicology. "Under (Norris's) direction, the New York City medical examiner's office would become a department that set forensic standards for the rest of the country," Blum wrote.
While a guest on National Public Radio’s "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday" to discuss the book, Blum told host Ira Flatow that she wrote the book because, "I've always been interested in poison. I wanted to write about the mystery of how (poisons) kill us.”
Reader's Digest named The Poisoner's Handbook one of its Top 10 best crime books, saying, "This is science writing at its finest that reads like a mystery novel."
The New York Times placed the book on its Top-rated List on March 5, 2010. In its Sunday book review, the Times said The Poisoner's Handbook was "structured like a collection of linked short stories. Each chapter centers on a mysterious death by poison that Norris and Gettler investigate."
The book was listed as a New York Times bestseller in paperback nonfiction in February 2011. Also, Amazon named The Poisoner's Handbook in its Top 100 Best of 2010.
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