Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum makes this welcome Elliott Bay return visit this evening. Once a working newspaper journalist, now teaching science journalism at the University of Wisconsin, she is here with The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (Penguin Press). The intrigue hinted at in the title is borne out in this fascinating work of historic sleuthing. "Blum makes chemistry come alive in her enthralling account of two forensic pioneers in early 20th-century New York. Blum follows the often unglamorous but monumentally important careers of Dr. Charles Norris, Manhattan's first trained chief medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, its first toxicologist ... Blum cleverly divides her narrative by poison, providing not only a puzzling case for each noxious substance but the ingenious methods devised by the medical examiner's office to detect them ... With the pacing and rich characterization of a first-rate suspense novelist, Blum makes science accessible and fascinating." – Publishers Weekly.