REVIEW:

A Taste for Poison is a nonfiction look at the stealthiest of stealthy killing techniques that will appeal if you are:

• A murderino*

• Walter White**

• Scientifically inclined***

• Bell Biv Devoe****

• Someone with a huge life insurance policy on a spouse*****

To my surprise, I have heard of many of the poisonings author Neil Bradbury covers, since several have occurred during my lifetime. While some sections felt like collegiate-level chemistry lessons, I never lost interest and learned a lot about ingestible killers.

* A murderino is a person with an obsessive interest in true crime, as coined by followers of the podcast “My Favorite Murder.” (MFM is my one and only podcast addiction, thus I am in fact a murderino.)

** Walter White is the main character from the exceptional TV series “Breaking Bad.” If you know, you know.

*** Scientifically inclined people do science. I am not and I do not.

**** Bel Biv Devoe, aka BBD, is an R&B group popular in the 90s whose hit “Poison” taught a generation of young men to never trust a big butt and a smile.

***** People with huge life insurance policies on their spouses who want to cash in early now have a how-to manual.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and the author for the opportunity to review an advance listening copy via NetGalley. The audiobook clocks in at 7 hours 15 minutes and is narrated by Derek Perkins. Publication is slated for February 2022.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

A brilliant blend of science and crime, A Taste for Poison reveals how eleven notorious poisons affect the body - through the murders in which they were used.

As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring — and popular — weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict?

In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and true crime, Dr. Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes — some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved — are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function.

Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads readers on a riveting tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive — or don’t.