I’m currently listening to the audiobook for The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7054123) (narrated by Coleen Marlo).
The premise was interesting, and the GoodReads blurb sounds amazing, but I’m 1/3 of the way through chapter 2 and I am finding the book to be terribly dull. So many tangents about specific poisons, coroners who held office for a hot minute, the dealings of the Democratic Party in that time… so many tangents that I get distracted from the main story. It’s not that these tangents aren’t interesting, it’s just that the GoodReads blurb made the book seem like it was going to go through odd cases like a family going bald or a blue circus performer, not the political situation of New York in the 1910s. Does the book get better, or is the book mostly about historical politics?
by Drummergirl16
2 Comments
I really enjoyed the book. The politics of the day very much plays into how the history unfolds. I didn’t think it was dry, a little slow here and there but overall, I thought it was really good.
the politics and social history are definitely a big part of the book, though moreso in the first third of the book, give or take. once the context is there it gets more into the stuff you’re looking for, with more brief updates on the outside world as it were. i found it interesting, but ymmv.