This is part of my write and read more in 2016 initiative, that I am starting true to my fashion , three months into the year. But fear not, for I bring you an exciting recommendation to feast your brains on.
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
Why you should read this:
Prohibition. Murder. Forensic science from the cradle to adulthood in the US.
To be fair, the title gives those reasons away anyway. But here is why you should really read this gem. Deborah Blum does an incredible job of bringing Charles Norris and Alexander Gentler back to life for the readers. From page to page, their dedication, hard work and sheer drive to do better, to be better at this fledging science filled me with a deep sense of respect for them. It almost leaves the reader with an infectious desire to emulate them and strive to be exhaustingly thorough in their endeavours. And thorough is the key word. If there is one thing you take away from this wonderful book, let it be the earnest doggedness of these scientists.
Favourite part:
The tale of each of the poisons. So lethal, so deceptive.
Because 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?”
I fangirled over Norris and Gettler and the Gettler Boys a lot while reading this book. The depressing reality of lack of female scientists during that time in the field of forensics aside, I thoroughly enjoyed devouring this book.
