This book is pretty badass. Each chapter focuses on a single poison (arsenic, carbon monoxide, radium, etc.) and if author Deborah Blum had stuck solely to that formula, this book would have still been pretty interesting.

This goes above and beyond that, however, becoming a tale of the careers of forensic toxicologists Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, told through the myriad poisons of their day and set against a backdrop of political cronies, Prohibition, The Depression, and the gaslight years of New York City. (I KNOW, RIGHT?) It's all woven together so organically that you receive just as much excitement reading about the two men fighting City Hall as you do reading about how arsenic became an easily detectable poison. Blum has really crafted an engaging story here, with a truly historical atmosphere, something that isn't easy to pull off in non-fiction without looking obvious or trite.

Someone should develop this into an HBO/AMC type series. (If it was AMC, then Charles Norris and Walter White could totally fight/make out!)