I just finished The Poisoner's Handbook, about forensic chemistry in the Roaring Twenties. Essentially, forensic chemistry didn't exist in the United States before then, so the chief medical examiner's office in New York City had to perform all kinds of research in between actually handling bodies. In many cases they were running tests they'd invented themselves to determine the cause of death. And because the field was so new, it wasn't considered reliable in court, so the scientists jumped at each trial where they could prove their discoveries to a jury. So it's already a sure thing if you like science-y stuff, but I think it does a great job organizing information in general. Each chapter is titled for a different poison: Wood Alcohol, Arsenic, etc, and explains what makes that chemical so destructive to the human body, one criminal case that made the medical examiner's office turn their focus to it, and how it fits into the cultural context of the time. So Wood Alcohol is about the horrible concoctions people started drinking after Prohibition, while Arsenic involves a murder scheme that inspired James Cain's novel Double Indemnity. I really enjoyed it. Even if you don't like science-y stuff, I think there's enough about how people actually lived in the Twenties to make it worthwhile.
I ran across the PBS special based on the book, and that was definitely eye-opening. It's crazy to think that, at one time, city coroners didn't need to have any medical training whatsoever to pronounce a cause of death, and if one was willing to slip some extra bucks under the table, a preferred cause could be arranged... Also, Alexander Gettler's work on cyanide is
still the forensic standard, almost a century after its publication? I wish some researchers were even a tenth as thorough as he was, and with a wide range of different toxic substances. (Seriously, cyanide to arsenic to radium. What a resume.)
Have you read the Iron Druid Chronicles? (I read a lot of fantasy...) Set in modern day, but following the story of the last Druid. He has survived for over a thousand years thanks to his knowledge of magical tea and a deal with the Morrigan not to let him die. He is able to shape shift into an Irish wolf hound, an Owl, and an Otter, as well as use lots of magical abilities connected with the earth. But he lives as the simple new age book store owner and brewer of interesting teas in a small town in Arizona. Why would the last Druid live such a simple life? Because he is on the run from Irish god Angus Og. He once stole a magic sword from a battlefield. Og wanted this sword and the Druid beat him to it. The Morrigan was happy to see Og put in his place by a mortal and was willing to help.
The first book introduces many of the series main characters (More come and go as time goes on) and I'm on either the forth or fifth book now. (He's pissed of the Olympian Gods on the Roman side of things by imprisoning Baccus so both the Roman and Greek Olympians have sent their Huntress Goddesses after him.)
High fantasy series with a Neil Gaiman-type pantheon? I usually don't dive deep into long fantasy series, but that sounds intriguing.
Also, in case anyone's interested,
Infected isn't just fairly gross, but insanely gross, particularly when things start moving towards a steroidal version of Clive Barker-esque body horror. I mean, I've jammed my hands into plenty of organs and a cadaver or two in my medical classes, and I felt ill to my stomach at som of the scenes that Sigler paints for the reader.
Armada was about as bad as I expected, from the one-dimensional female characters to the invocation of Carl Sagan in a way completely antithetical to his worldview. So of course it's been optioned for a movie in Hollywood for seven figures. Ah well.
I finished Tim Powers's
The Anubis Gates the other week, and it's wonderful. Time travel, Egyptian mythology, body-snatching, Regency Period poetry, and evil clowns -- excellent book, and I wonder why I never read his work before. Right now, I have another Powers book,
Declare, going, all about the conflict for the forces of the supernatural during the Cold War and orchestrated by spy agencies even more secret than MI6 in the UK. Next up, I hope to begin
Foucault's Pendulum in honor of Umberto Eco's recent death, which I hear is the perfect rebuttal but anyone who thinks science has failed humanity.
