So good! I thought this was fascinating and so readable. Blum is a compelling storyteller. This book follows two pioneers of the modern medical examiners' office -- Norris and Gettler -- from 1915 to 1937. It is astonishing what corruption used to be acceptable in New York city prior to 1915. (Once, early in his office, Norris was "encouraged" to put down "suicide" as a Cause of Death on a Death Certificate. The corpse had been shot four times.)

At the turn of the century, poisons of all kinds were plentiful. Few people understood how lethal commonplace chemicals could be, and if you were of a homicidal mind -- well, you'd most likely get away with murder. Chloroform was sold over-the-counter in pharmacies; arsenic was sold in beauty elixers; radium (radium!) was once touted as beneficial to your health. Mercury salts were often prescribed (in this pre-antibiotic time) for skin diseases -- too bad if you accidently drink it. Cyanide was often used as a fumigant in buildings and ships and pockets of gas would often remain in poorly ventilated buildings.

Probibition itself caused the poisoning deaths of thousands of people in NY city alone. Methyl alcohol (wood grain alcohol), sometimes even industrial solvents, were substituted for ethyl alcohol. Did you know that 2 oz. of methyl alcohol will kill an adult? Modern cocktails were invented during these years because all the extra flavors helped hide the...well, poison in the glass.

Really, I liked this one a lot.