Book of Poisons
On Monday I took my car in for it’s very first MOT and service — the first one with me as it’s owner anyway. I had all the extras as it’s the first time I’ve had it serviced and I wanted to be sure that everything had been checked. This left me with a very smoothly running car, but also a day stuck in Stafford with nothing at all to do.
A lot of the day was spent in the library trying in vain to learn Italian, a topic that they have shockingly few books on, and yet there’s a shelf full of books written in Latvian. Bonkers.
Anyway, during this time of epic boredom I had a browse round Waterstone’s and found this “Book of Poisons.”
Reading the blurb informed me that this is a book intended for fiction writers — writers of mysteries, detectives, horrors etcetera — so they can get background information on various poisons, their appearance, effects, ways in which to administer them, and how to get or make them. Which makes things lovely and simple for anyone wishing to write about someone poisoning someone else, but also horrifically simple for those who wish to skip the whole writing part and get down to the killing.
Perhaps there should be another, next to it, entitled “Book of Stabbing,” informing potential fiction writers and murderers of the most effective places on the human body to stab, depending upon intent. It should have different chapters depending on whether your intent is instant death, a silent, sneaky, ninja death, or simply pain and incapacitation.
Or bomb-making. There should be a book on that. For potential writers of a new genre of terrorism fiction. But then it’s not really necessary, there’s a book by Stephen Leather, called The Bomb Maker, which describes in detail the ingredients and methods necessary for construction of a large fertiliser bomb.
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