Book: The Poisoner's Handbook
Basic Information : Synopsis : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author: Deborah Blum
Edition: epub on Libby
Publisher: Penguin Press
ISBN: Penguin Press
Start Date: June 1, 2026
Read Date: June 20, 2026
319 pages
Genre: History, Biography, Science
Language Warning: Low
Rated Overall: 3½ out of 5
History: 3 out of 5
Synopsis:
The book is essentially a biography of Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler. Rach chapter is about a particular kind of poison. The author tells a story at the start of each chapter with an emphasis on the port which Norris and Gettler play. The chapters talk about the poison-both its composition as well as how it is detected. Then resolving the case.
- Date Became Aware of Book: 2018??
- Why do I want to read this book: Deborah Blum had come to Fresno State to give a talk. She used to work for the Fresno Bee and people I know said she was pretty good.
- What do I think I will get out of it? Recently I read a Dorothy Sayers book, Strong Poison where a person is murdered with arsenic. I figure this book might give some good background.
Thoughts:
PROLOGUE
Before the 1800’s and the early 1900’s, a poisoner’s chances of being caught were few because there were not a whole bunch of ways to detect if a person had been poisoned. A sudden violent sickness, a strange taste in the last meal or drink or having an animal taste the last meal were about the only ways to detect death by poison. Starting in the early 1800’s chemists started to be able to determine the kinds of chemicals which were in food and in a body. But along with the means to detect poison, more poisons became available as people were able to produce new ones.
Poisoning was different from the typical murder. They were not done in hot anger. Rather it took planning. Homicidal poisoning requires a calculating intelligence. World War I accelerated the use of chemicals to kill people.
ONE - CHLOROFORM (CHCl) 1915
Talks about the previous coroner to Norris, Patrick Riordan. He was a worthless drunk. Up through 1915 there was very little qualification to be a coroner or to sign the death certificate. Their information was unreliable and prosecutors would try not to include them in any court case. Then New York City decided that the position needed to be filled by a qualified doctor with pathological experience. This would take effect in 1918.
TWO - WOOD ALCOHOL (CHOH) 1918—1919
Talks about the role which Tammany Hall played in the selection of coroner and other medical people, such as the chief medical examiner. They ignored the qualifications which a person must have until there was such an uproar that the old coroner, Riordan, was forced out of office. It was through the state which this happened.
Dr Charles Norris was appointed in his place. Norris had been the chief of laboratories at Bellevue. As medical examiner, Norris set the standards for what was expected for forensic work. He went beyond loving his job, to it becoming his life. He came from a family of old money and he would fund his office when New York would not provide proper funding. He was well published in the medical field. He was able to move the offices into Bellevue as they had created a building just for the purpose of working with the civic authorities. This included a chemistry lab.
He established professional standards. Those who did not live up to them were fired.
Alexander Gettler was hired as the forensic chemist. He lived the ideas which Norris wanted his office to have. Gettler would also make a name for himself as well. Unlike Norris, he had to work to provide his education. Gettler would write the book on what a toxicology laboratory did. When he faced a new situation, he would invent a method for testing for new toxins. For new poisons he would grind up material-from hamburger to dead dogs to human brains-with the poison and experiment until he found a way to identify the poison. With existing ones, he usually had access to an unclaimed dead body.
Talks about the effects of Prohibition. While it did curtail alcohol production from grapes, it just drove the production of alcohol into different forms, such as wood, ethanol or methyl.
Grain alcohol is significantly safer than the ones created in the underground distillaries. Gettler’s message was that This is poison.
Talked about the mustard gas used in World War I and how it seemed more inhumane than shooting or blowing up people. Also about the flu pandemic of 1918.
Described how he developed a very sensitive test for wood alcohol.
THREE - CYANIDES (HCN, KCN, NaCN) 1920–1922
Prohibition started Jan 20, 1920. Alcohol deaths soared due to the type of alcohol used. Not only that, but it contained contaminants such as kerosene, mercury and other chemicals.
Norris’ department was still vastly underfunded.
Gettler noted that to solve a cyanide killing-and I wonder if most other poisons-you needed to know how the poison was administered
Both Norris and Gettler were motivated to work with the legal community to help them understand the science behind forensics. This involved other leading people in the field from all over the nation.
FOUR - ARSENIC (As) 1922—1923
I had a special interest in this chapter. One of the reasons to read this book was the story by Dorothy Sayers called Strong Poison. A person is murdered by arsenic. But all the food consumed by the victim others had eaten as well. Could this book give additional background?
Blum notes that consumed by itself, arsenic has a distinct and unpleasant taste. But mixed if it is in a food or drink, it is hard to distinguish, unless an excessive amount is used.
Arsenic murders seem to incite multiple occurrences, leading to overconfidence in being successful in its application and hideness.
Arsenic breaks down extremely slowly compared to organic poisons and can be detected decades after death in a victim’s hair and fingernails. But the symptoms look like the flu or other common sicknesses.
But as any toxicologist knew, it was also an arsenic solution, creating that look of near-translucent skin by a low-level poisoning of the user. Talking about arsenic in a common household product and the effect it had on someone. This is similar to the murderer which Sayers’ describes.
FIVE - MERCURY (Hg) 1923—1925
Similar chapter structure. One thing which both surprises me and also does not is the common poisons which we are surrounded by. This book helps to bring it out. As in this case, mercury is found in bedbug killers. My first thought is don’t these people know how dangerous all these poisons are? Then I look around and think of all of the chemicals around my house ranging from simple bleach and laundry detergent to Decon to the herb and pesticides in my house.
Talked about a case where Gettler was able to show that the accusation against a husband poisoning his wife was not justified.
On the other hand, Gettler was able to identify that tetraethyl, used by gas companies to reduce engine knocking, was causing deaths. The plant where this was made was Standard Oil and called the looney gas building. The people who worked in it either went insane or died.
SIX - CARBON MONOXIDE (CO), PART I 1926
Compares death by carbon dioxide and monoxide. While easy to kill with CO2, it is easy to find out who has bought dry ice. While CO is everywhere. With both, it is the concentration which forces out O2, which the lack of it will kill us. While abundant, it is easy to detect the cause of death. Just need to figure out how.
I am thinking of the time where we were getting rid of bedbugs from my parents place. One of the methods was to use dry ice in a closed room. I wonder if this is how it worked.
Death from CO2 comes from suffocation, such as strangling. Death from CO is more industrial-engines or natural gas.
SEVEN - METHYL ALCOHOL (CHOH) 1927
World War I had taught that chemists could be more dangerous than other scientists. The government chemists were now working on making alcohol deadly. Result of Prohibition not working as intended. People were dying because the alcohol had been poisoned by the chemists, even though drinking, even the refined stuff was illegal.
Bad bootleg alcohol mostly affected the poor. The rich had other means of getting alcohol. One of the side effects was that the only alcohol available was hard stuff. Wine and beer were not legal. So there was no break in period for new drinkers, such as what a beer would offer. So a person’s body could not build up tolerance.
Norris’ thinking was this imposition of one group’s personal beliefs on the rest of society could not be justified as moral. While I agree, sentencing people to death because of drinking to save them from death seems rather off. I wonder how far he would take his thinking. If a person who was a habitual drinker needed treatment at governmental expense, could a dry person object and not have his funds used?
EIGHT - RADIUM (Ra) 1928—1929
Talks about Harrison Stanford Martland. He was friends with Norris and had become the chief medical examiner of Essex County in New Jersey. He wrote papers and was a man who liked to see his research put to use. Don’t we all? Very few people like to figure things out just to have it put on a shelf, forever ignored. The thing which Martland did was pursue the effects of radioactivity.
Talks about the discovery of Marie and Pierre Currie of radium and polonium. This led to a boom of how radium and radioactive materials could cure almost anything.
A factory which painted radium onto watches had their workers suffering a variety of issues and then they were falling dead. Martland investigated and found their bodies were radioactive. Those alive were exhaling radon gas.
Then there is a separate story about how Norris violated his own rules and held back information about the death of a banner. The “ex-Governor was the principal spokesman” in a plea to hold back the announcement of the death. Specifically, the officials gathered around Norris wanted a delay until the close of banking hours on Saturday at noon. He never did that again.
NINE - ETHYL ALCOHOL (CHOH) 1930-1932
The chapter talks about death from “hard liquor." By the time the 1930’s came about, the insurance companies noted that death from alcohol was 600% more than in 1920, before Prohibition.
Gettler realized it was not the blood alcohol which was dangerous, but how much alcohol made it to the brain. He was not trying to identify how much alcohol made you drunk. Rather how much would kill you.
But as the question of why some people remained sober after drinking, he did do a series of experiments. The result was that as you became an alcoholic, your body learned how to metabolize the alcohol better. But given sufficient amounts of alcohol, you would still get drunk, but at a slower rate.
Covers Norris’ resignation then rehire.
Prohibition ends with Roosevelt coming to power. So do much of the alcohol poisoning deaths.
TEN - CARBON MONOXIDE (CO), PART II 1933—1934
Goes through a murder which used CO as the agent of death after other methods failed.
Talked about forensic medicine starting to be taught as a discipline rather than just another class.
Cigarette smoking was so pervasive that, as Alexander Gettler discovered, the habit interfered with his research into carbon monoxide saturation of the blood. Gettler set out to discover at levels CO lead to death.
ELEVEN - THALLIUM (Tl) 1935—1936
FDA in the 1930’s held no power to regulate or set standards for products. There was no way for the consumer to determine if a product might be harmful.
Talked about the discovery of thallium. And how lethal it is.
Finally, after a string of deaths where the product was “legal” under the law, the FDA was given regulatory powers including testing and requiring labeling.
Norris dies.
EPILOGUE
Concentrates on Gettler’s accomplishments. One of his students, Irving Sunshine, helped move forensic science from the “wet” approach-working with squishy stuff-to one where equipment would examine chemicals-the dry approach. This equipment would be things like a spectroscope. But Sunshine held high respect for his mentor, wondering if the electricity went out, would today’s scientist be able to remotely do what Gettler did.
There was constant anxiety in Gettler’s life: sometimes the dead did walk in Alexander Gettler’s sleep, sometimes they rattled in the black chair of Sing Sing, and always, as he admitted in that last vulnerable interview, “I keep asking myself, have I done everything right?”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Talks about Plum’s time as a chemist and her interest in the subject matter. As toxicologists say, the dose makes the poison. She notes that intentional poisoning is a calculated event made by preplanning. Most of us are repealed by it.
Evaluation:
This book is not for the weak of mind or the stomach. But if you can stomach some of the more grizzly, non-bloody murders, then you will get some pretty good stories of the development of forensic medicine.
The book traces development of forensic medicine through the stories of Dr Charles Norris, the chief pathologist and then medical examiner of New York City during the early 20th century and his chemist, Dr Alexander Gettler, the City’s first toxicologist.
Blum does this by looking at how eleven different poisons were able to be identified as well as the testing to determine critical levels of those poisons. In each chapter, which proceeds roughly in chronological order, there is the story of a murder, the symptoms of the poison, what made the poison deadly and the resolution of the murder. There is some overlap in the discussion of poisons from chapter to chapter. Such as, radium poisoning’s discussion is continued in the next chapter on alcohol.
Towards the end of the book, there is a note about what lead the FDA to be able to regulate what went into foods. The questions about regulation and over-regulation still is of concern today. I wonder if we would be so happy if these regulations were not in effect today.
All in all it is a good book to read and to hear the background of how the science of poison became a science as well as hints of where it is going today.
Notes from my book group:
What interests you in reading a book about poisons and poisoners?
Blum says that homicidal poisoning requires a calculating intelligence. Do you agree? Why would a person resort to killing by poison? WHat sort of planning does that need to take?
Norris set the standards for forensic medicine. Why would something like forensics need standards? How did it get by without standards? How do you go about creating an acceptable set of standards? Did Norris do it in the fashion you described?
Gettler was an inquisitive person. When he did not know how to identify if something was a poison, he experimented. A lot of times it was with what was considered the undesirables of society. How would his experiments be looked at today?
What poisons do you commonly interact with? Did this book make you aware of all of the poisons you are surrounded with in your home?
The book not only talks about a person who murders with poisons, but the chemicals companies use and its effects. Describe how Gettler and his associates would come to the realization that some of the chemicals companies use are having effects which are harming people. Is anything not illegal allowable?
The book notes that poisons were being produced more rapidly than test could be invented. Should these new chemicals be regulated? How? Does it matter if it is in foods or medicines or personal care? Vs for industrial use?
What does the author want us to feel when we read this book?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of The Poisoner’s Handbook?
Does this book work as a handbook or is it something else?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
Describe the culture talked about in the book.
How is the culture described in this book different from where we live?
What economic or political situations are described?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
- Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology by Rudolph Witthaus
- The Room with the Little Door by Molineux
- Legal Medicine and Toxicology
- The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
- Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
- 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs
- Studies in Pessimism by Arthur Schopenhauer
Good Quotes:
- First Line: UNTIL THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY few tools existed to detect a toxic substance in a corpse.
- Last Line: There are mornings, lit by the cold winter light, when I start talking about a poison in my book, revealing my own dangerous expertise, and as I do, I watch my husband quietly, not really thinking about it, slide his cup out of my reach
- About the Author
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- ONE - CHLOROFORM (CHCl) 1915
- TWO - WOOD ALCOHOL (CHOH) 1918—1919
- THREE - CYANIDES (HCN, KCN, NaCN) 1920–1922
- FOUR - ARSENIC (As) 1922—1923
- FIVE - MERCURY (Hg) 1923—1925
- SIX - CARBON MONOXIDE (CO), PART I 1926
- SEVEN - METHYL ALCOHOL (CHOH) 1927
- EIGHT - RADIUM (Ra) 1928—1929
- NINE - ETHYL ALCOHOL (CHOH) 1930-1932
- TEN - CARBON MONOXIDE (CO), PART II 1933—1934
- ELEVEN - THALLIUM (Tl) 1935—1936
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- GRATITUDES
- A GUIDE TO THE HANDBOOK
- NOTES
- INDEX
References:
- Publisher's Web Site for Book
- Author's Website
- Wikipedia-Book
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- New York Times Review
- National Geographic Review
- NPR Review
- History in the Margins
- PBS - American Experience
- Booked for the Day blog
- The Journal of Public Health Management & Practice - review
