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mercurialbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley, HarperNorth and Neil Bradbury for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.
This book is brilliant, it would be difficult to find another that fits in with my non-fiction reading interests more accurately. Neil Bradbury is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and has written an excellent twist on the dry biochemistry textbook. Combining current biochemical knowledge, medical history and true crime I found each section absolutely fascinating and spent far too much time deep-diving the topics to eagerly discover more information.
The eleven poisons are each given an exploratory chapter. There are stories of their origin and discovery, historical cases of their use, both as a poison and a medicine, and then the biochemical breakdown of how and why they work within the body. The authors sense of humour is also threaded throughout with a very British sarcasm and wit, which absolutely kept me smiling despite the macabre subject matter.
Go buy this book!
This book is brilliant, it would be difficult to find another that fits in with my non-fiction reading interests more accurately. Neil Bradbury is a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and has written an excellent twist on the dry biochemistry textbook. Combining current biochemical knowledge, medical history and true crime I found each section absolutely fascinating and spent far too much time deep-diving the topics to eagerly discover more information.
The eleven poisons are each given an exploratory chapter. There are stories of their origin and discovery, historical cases of their use, both as a poison and a medicine, and then the biochemical breakdown of how and why they work within the body. The authors sense of humour is also threaded throughout with a very British sarcasm and wit, which absolutely kept me smiling despite the macabre subject matter.
Go buy this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Medical content, Murder, and Vomit
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Alcohol, Mental illness, and War
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