Excerpt from Poison Mysteries in History, Romance and Crime The Scythians are known to have used poisons and mixed the venom they employed with human blood. Certain tribes of the Caucasus are said to have employed viper-venom mixed with decomposed human blood serum. Aristotle and Strabo state that the Celts were accustomed to poison their arrows and weapons, while Pliny and Celsus refer to the practice among the Gauls. AS late as the seventh century poisoned arrows were used by the Dacians and the Dalmatians on the shores of the Danube, and among the Goths it seems to have been a common custom. Almost every savage tribe and people throughout the world have been found to have their own particular poison for this purpose, and there is little doubt that this method of making the wound caused by the weapons more deadly, has been practised from a period of remote antiquity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Passion {poison} often makes fools of clever men; sometimes even makes clever men of fools. La Rochefoucauld This book represents a pioneering work dealing exclusively with poi sons in the hands of the murderer, tamperer, and terrorist. One of the oldest offensive killing weapons developed by humanity, after the stick, stone, and fist, were the poisons. Yet, after nearly 5000 years of recorded history I no in-depth work has ever been produced dealing exclusively with poisons as weapons for homicide. The author's review of the intemationalliterature has revealed only a few scattered scientific papers dealing with the psychology of the poisoner I and books on medical jurisprudence and forensic investiga tion have devoted only a few pages to this important subject, usually stating that it is a rare " " occurrence. How do we know the true rarity of the use of poisons for homicide? All one has to do is look at the number of poisonings that are first documented only after the exhu mation of the deceased to raise the logical question: If we missed this one, how many more have been missed? If all those buried in our cemeteries who had been poisoned could raise their hands, we would probably be aghast at the numbers! For years, the homicidal poisoner has remained shrouded in mys tery.

Westleham Village 1947. It’s the Westleham village show and with the war finally over, everyone is looking forward to a pleasant day. But newcomer, Martha Miller doesn’t share the excitement. Because since her husband Stan left for work one day and never returned, Martha has been treated as somewhat of an outsider in Westleham. The village gossip is that Martha must be to blame.... Martha hopes she can win her fellow villagers over with her delicious homemade plum gin. But as glasses of the tangy tipple are quaffed, disaster strikes! Chairwoman of the village show, Alice Warren, slumps to the ground - poisoned! As fingers of suspicion again point Martha’s way, she’s determined to prove her innocence and find the real culprit. And she’s ably helped by the new vicar, Luke Walker. But who would kill Alice and why? And will Luke and Martha discover who is behind the poisoning before it's too late? Find out in a brand new Martha Miller mystery from bestselling author Catherine Coles. Praise for Catherine Coles: 'An utterly charming 1940’s mystery. Definitely a new series addiction!' Bestselling author Debbie Young. 'Pure mystery buff entertainment' Library Bookwatch Perfect for fans of Lee Strauss and Beth Byers!

Equal parts Sherlock Holmes and P.G. Wodehouse, Charles Finch's debut mystery A Beautiful Blue Death introduces a wonderfully appealing gentleman detective in Victorian London who investigates crime as a diversion from his life of leisure. Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery. Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison. The grand house where the girl worked is full of suspects, and though Prue had dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by the motive for the girl's death. When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence Smith? Or was it something else entirely? And can Lenox find the answer before the killer strikes again—this time, disturbingly close to home?

Set in a crumbling 1850s London infirmary, a richly atmospheric Victorian crime novel where murder is the price to be paid for secrets kept. Ramshackle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St. Saviour’s Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors, the doctors bicker and backstab. Ambition, jealousy, and loathing seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything but says nothing. And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes across these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary’s old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open a long-forgotten past—with fatal consequences. In a trail that leads from the bloody world of the operating room and the dissecting table to the notorious squalor of Newgate Prison and the gallows, Jem’s adversary proves to be both powerful and ruthless. As St. Saviour’s destruction draws near, the dead are unearthed from their graves while the living are forced to make impossible choices. And murder is the price to be paid for the secrets to be kept.