A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them

Debut author Bradbury (physiology and biophysics, Rosalind Franklin Univ. of Medicine and Science) takes readers on a frightening romp through killer chemicals, from chlorine gas, to ricin, to the poisoner’s standard: cyanide. In each chapter, he discusses how a different lethal agent was developed, refined, or weaponized, and includes an example of death by that poison; for instance, in 2008, Lakhvir Kaur Singh, an Indian immigrant to the UK, poisoned her lover with aconite when he started a new relationship. Bradbury’s thorough yet understandable explanations outline, in jargon-free language, how each poison makes its way through the body and eventually kills. He also sneaks in relevant histories of medicine, such as the late 19th-century understanding of the nervous system. His accounts are fascinating, edifying, and terrifying.