This was a fascinating and very readable account of the dawn of modern medical forensics and forensic toxicology.

The book is structured around the work of NYC's first trained medical examiner, Charles Norris, and his talented employee Alexander Gettle. Each chapter delves into a particular poison encountered by the medical examiner's department, mixing up true-life murder cases, laboratory biochemistry, and NYC Jazz Age culture.

I found it amazing how awash society was in poisons during the early 20th c. People literally lived in a constant sea of modern chemistry inventions running wild, unchecked by regulation. Arsenic wallpaper or radioactive health water anyone? But the biggest surprise was that the greatest poisoner of all depicted in the book was the US Government during Prohibition.

The level of human tragedy depicted and the passionate efforts by these crusading and dedicated public servants to devise laboratory methods to find the truth, makes for a read as gripping as any crime novelist's murder mystery.