This was an interesting nonfiction that explored a lot of different stories in true crime and science. It was extremely accessible to read and well written. I would highly recommend this to any true crime or mystery readers!

Interesting look at poisons and how they've been used in fiction and life. It was quite well researched and written. Definitely a title I plan to reread and perhaps use in advanced homeschooling

This was a very interesting read. As a big fan of true crime this definitely kept my attention. It was science heavy, but written in a way that was easy to read and entertaining.

I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

This was one of the best science based books I've read in a while. The author and editor did a great job of making sure that the stories were informative while being easily accessible to those not in the field. This is an incredibly hard task when it comes to relaying scientific information. The author also did a great job sticking to his thesis throughout the book. Every chapter was an excellent demonstration of his point. I really hope he has plans to write another book.

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book. These are my honest thoughts.

This book had me constantly amazed and baffled and shocked by turns. So much good information! I love learning about true crime and how criminals were caught and such, and methodology as well as psychology are fascinating to me. This book was right up my alley.

The great thing about it was that the author presented it in a way that I could easily understand it. A lot of texts like this one are way above my head to where I feel like I need to hold at least five or six PhDs to understand half of it. Not so with this book. The language was easily comprehended and written almost like a novel. It was very engaging and kept me riveted to the pages, though I had to pause many times to digest (pun intended) each new shocking thing that was revealed.

This is a great book for murder mystery writers to have on hand. I’m a writer of a different genre at the moment, but I will definitely be keeping this book in mind if I every dive into writing murder mysteries.

Content: nudity, expletives (few), mythology, alcohol, drugs, bars/pubs, brothels, marital affairs, prostitutes, abortions, unwed pregnancies, substance abuse, alchemy, teen use of drugs, teen use of alcohol, teen use of tobacco, Catholicism, premarital sex

This blend of science and true crime was really interesting, and the format of each chapter being dedicated to a different poison, talking about some crimes, and how the poison impacts the body, was great. After awhile I wasn't as interested in the science, or it all started to blur together, but that's just my attention span.

A Taste for Poison by Neil Bradbury is the perfect blend of science and true crime. In the book, Bradbury highlights eleven deadly poisons, explaining their origins and how they effect the body, as well as features a murderer who used the poison.

I am a big fan of true crime, so I found this book extremely interesting. I admit I was a little hesitant at first, because often times science books go right over my head. That isn't the case with this one. Bradbury's tone is not dry, but rather combines the genres well.

Through a blend of science, history, and true crime, Neil Bradbury explores eleven fascinating poisons. For each poison, he explains how it works, shares any positive uses, and tells the story of a real murder or two in which it took part. It's an engaging and balanced way of storytelling that kept me intrigued from beginning to end. If you've ever thought about writing a murder mystery, it's definitely a must-read!

It’s no secret that I love mysteries and have an interest in the morbid side of things, plus I have a background in science, so I was very excited to have the chance to read A Taste Of Poison. Reading the case histories explaining how each poisons are used to kill and in some cases to heal was just as fascinating as I expected. While a book like this can easily read like a textbook, the author avoids that trap, keeping readers entertained while he educates them about eleven different potentially lethal substances, from insulin to chlorine. I can see this book appealing to many readers from mystery or science buffs to those with an interest in true crime.

I am so grateful to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review A Taste of Poison.

I loved how the author combined enough science to give me basic knowledge with the poisonings. It moved at a good pace and was very interesting.

Very well done and enlightening! The research is evident and I quite enjoyed it. Def a resource for an episode of my history podcast on lady poisoners.

A great nonfiction read for anyone who loves science and the what and how behind many of world's crimes using poison.

This is quite a fascinating book and quite scary. Thank you to NeGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

Overall, I feel that this book was very informative and easy to read. I appreciate the formulaic layout of the book. For a beginner curriculum, I think this book would be fine, but for any advanced students it would be difficult to keep their attention.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A Taste for Poision is an amazing look at poisons and those whose used them. Well researched and excellently written, it was a fascinating read.

4 out of 5 stars.

This is quite an fascinating and unconventional book, all about poisons (particularly naturally occurring poisons), their history and uses, as well as famous crimes committed using them. It’s a combination of scientific and medical writing, true crime, and just regular educational nonfiction.

Each chapter is about a different poison - Bradbury covers everything from aspirin to cyanide to polonium to digoxin and so much more. He discusses where it comes from and when it was discovered and its common uses (most of these poisons had or have a history of being used as a medicine). A thread weaving through nearly every substance discussed here is that a small amount can be a tonic, but a large amount can be lethal.

Bradbury then introduces a case (or cases) in which the drug was used to poison someone, giving great, brief, intriguing summaries of what happened. The stories are also well chosen and distinct from one another, ranging from a more run-of-the-mill husband poisoning his wife to a nurse with Munchausen’s poisoning children patients with potassium to the KGB organizing assassinations-by-poison of Russian defectors.

Going back to the science, Bradbury then discusses how the substance kills a person, detailing the chemical and physical processes that happen when the substance is ingested, injected, or otherwise enters a person’s system. He makes this science totally accessible for the layperson, and as someone who doesn’t typically read scientific writing or nonfiction, these sections didn’t detract from my interest or the narrative. Bradbury also typically comments on how doctors or forensic pathologists could tell that a person was poisoned instead of experiencing a natural death. Often, the substances come with a telltale sign that was used especially when quick lab testing wasn’t available - for example, some poisons cause intense dilation of the pupils after death, immediately signaling the potential use of that drug.

Overall, this was a quick and fascinating read. Definitely goes on the list of “Wait, you read a book about what?!” type books. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC via Netgalley!

So it is very possible that i am a giant science nerd, because I loved this book. I found the subject matter really interesting. While this book isn’t terribly long. It gives a well rounded balance of toxic substances, their properties, how they kill and notable historical examples. I learned so much, and like I say it was fascinating. A lot of this material is pretty technical, but I think the author broke things down in a way that makes sense to someone who isn’t a chemistry major. That balance isn’t always easy to find, but i thinks it’s successful here. Review posted to Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Litsy, and LibraryThing.

A Taste for Poison in the perfect mix of some of my favorite reading subjects - science (specifically poison), murder, and some true crime. The biochemistry explanations provided for each of the poisoned used were fascinating and learning more about high profile criminal cases really held my attention. Completely recommend!!

n Dr. Neil Bradbury’s A Taste for Poison, which publishes on October 19, 2021, he explores the history and science of 11 poisonous substances. Dr. Bradbury, professor, scientist, and writer, tells true crime stories of each poison as well as how the poison disrupts the normal functions of the body. It’s a delightful and informative read for anyone who is fascinated by the world of poisons—and this includes virtually anyone who is a murder mystery or true crime aficionado.

Murder & Mayhem had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Bradbury about his work. Below, read our interview with an author who truly understands the power of poison.

a taste for poison by dr. neil bradbury
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Murder & Mayhem: What made you decide to write this book? What drew you to the particular subject?

Dr. Neil Bradbury: I'm obviously a scientist and medical school professor, so I've always been interested in science and a bit of a science geek. But I've always been interested in mysteries as well. So this seemed an obvious marriage between those two passions in my life. And looking through things, I found it really hard to find the kind of book that I wanted to read about the topic. And so not being able to find it, I decided to write one myself.

As a student of biochemistry as an undergraduate student, I spent all my time learning about the effects of different chemicals on the body. But there was actually one class…[where] they mentioned a chemical called Bongkrekic Acid, which pretty much nobody's ever heard of. As the professor was going through the effects on cells and tissues on it, I just thought, “I wonder if that could be used for murder, and no one's ever heard of it.” Could you get away with it, since no one's ever heard of it? That's kind of been percolating in the back of my mind ever since then.

Nowadays, I try to include murders and poisonings in all my classes, as a way to give a different spin on what's going on. But I think it really does give an interesting perspective on just how the body works, and how you could interfere with the body. I guess it has been a lifelong interest of mine.

Many of the stories that I presented in class are included in the book. Now, obviously, the book is not intended for anybody reading it to end up with a medical degree. I did want it to be something that people who are interested in mysteries and science would enjoy reading, and also include a little bit of history as well.

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Why do you think people are so fascinated with poisons?

I think it's certainly something that resonates with everybody on a deep level. Most of us grew up with the stories of Snow White eating the poisoned apple. I think there's that kind of almost cultural curiosity.

But I think there's also some sense that poisons are almost magical. [When] we think about someone being hit over the head with a baseball bat or a tire iron, that's pretty obvious how that would kill someone. But when you're talking about poisons, you're really talking about just a few grains of a little white powder that looks totally innocuous, but can kill you, oftentimes rather quickly.

Related: Hidden Gems: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers

It's also the fact that you can give someone a poison, and actually then be quite a distance away from the victim before they may succumb to it. So in terms of certainly murder mysteries, when the person dies, the murder can be several thousand miles away at the time of the death, but yet still be responsible for the death.

But different poisons will kill in quite different ways. And oftentimes the precise symptoms that a person would have when they're experiencing being poisoned can actually be quite useful in determining what they've been exposed to. One of the stories that I tell is a poisoning that occurred in Scotland. One of the victims was married to an anesthesiologist who immediately recognized the symptoms and was able to save his wife and son from dying from the poison, because he recognized those specific symptoms.

You did an incredible job communicating biological functions that the poisons impacted. Why was this important for the book?

I think that there really is a genuine interest in learning how poisons work and how they affect the body. People are generally interested in how the body works as well.

This is how the body normally works and it usually works pretty darn well. But if you put these poisons in, it can disrupt things. And also to really give some exposure to the fact that whilst we generally think of poisons as something nasty, something terrible, they are just chemicals at the end of the day, and they're not really good or bad. It's just how you use them. I'm thinking of people like [serial killer nurse] Charles Cullen, who used digoxin, which is a really important medicine in treating heart complaints. But if you abuse it, you can kill someone.

I also wanted to get across that there are these two sides of the coin as well. And oftentimes, some poisons contain drugs that can be used to treat other poisons. One of the things that I bring out in the book is that atropine on its own, if you take it in higher levels, will kill you. But I think also it came out in prominence just recently with the attempted assassinations of the Russian double agents in England in Salisbury. I guess just about 18 months ago, when they were poisoned with nerve agents, it turns out that one of the best antidotes for that is atropine.

How did you decide which poisons to include in your book? There’s a lot of poisons out there to choose from.

Trying to narrow those down was quite difficult. Obviously, you've got to cover the big three (arsenic, cyanide, and strychnine). I wanted to pick out those poisons that really did illustrate the fact that they operate in different ways. Some poisons attack the nerves. Other poisons will attack the heart and stop it from beating. Other poisons will pretty much destroy the protein production inside every cell. I didn't want to come up with a whole series of poisons that all just worked in the same way.

I also wanted to find poisons that had really good stories associated with them, if I can say that a murder is a good story. How many times will you come across a story where someone had been poisoned in chicken curry?

Related: 11 Culinary Cozy Mysteries Bursting with Recipes for You to Try Out

What mysteries do you like to read? I presume Agatha Christie is one of them.

Obviously I read a lot of Agatha Christie growing up. That was certainly my main interest. [Also I read] the classic ones like Sherlock Holmes, who also included several poisons in some of his stories, and obviously other classics. I was more focused on British writers at the time. So people like Ruth Rendell...and also P.D. James, who I will admit, I kind of stole the title for my book from. She had written a book called A Taste for Death. So I admit, I somewhat purloined part of her title to put mine for A Taste For Poison.

Any final thoughts?

It certainly should be known that it's really difficult to get away with poisoning someone these days. The ability to detect even fairly exotic poisons has come in leaps and bounds since early times, and now it's pretty much impossible to come up with a poison that can't be detected. So if you're going to kill someone, probably poisoning is not the best way. Although in murder mystery books, you're free to run the gamut.