In the early 20th Century, the American household was chockfull of unregulated and highly toxic everyday items which were often used to produce, whether accidental or intentional, a fatal result. As difficult as it is to believe in an era where forensic evidence is nearly irrefutable in the public mind, scientific results in criminal cases were at the time easily fudged, regularly challenged, and often dismissed. When forward thinking Charles Norris took over the corrupt New York City Coroner's Office in 1918 and appointed Alexander Gettler as his chief toxicologist, they fought a long, uphill, and ultimately successful battle in legitimizing forensics. From a novel by Debbie Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook is essentially a compendium of the top cases and challenges Norris and Gettler faced told with both an academic clarity (beneficial for those not scientifically inclined like yours truly) and a genuine flair for mystery storytelling, though it does somewhat begin to border lesser true crime programming.
