Poisoning, Linda Stratmann makes clear in this extravagantly detailed history, was one of the great fears of the 19th century... Filling her pages with case after case, she pursues her subject with the dogged persistence of a laboratory analyst.-Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times *
The Secret Poisoner chronicles an amazing array of poisonings... Stratmann is highly skilled at combining brevity with colour, her rapid succession of poisonings soon coalesces into an overall pattern.-Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
A riveting history on the employment of poisons and the rise of regulations on them . . . mystery readers will be intrigued by the murderous methods and their effects on victims.-Library Journal * Library Journal *
Linda Stratmann makes a fine job of chronicling the cat-and-mouse contest between poisoners on the one hand and science and law on the other...ghoulishly fascinating-Jacqueline Banerjie, TLS -- Jacqueline Banerjee * TLS *
There's fire in [Stratmann's] sociological thesis that poison murder was a secret crime, the chosen method of voiceless women, children and servants - those who had no legal power within the Victorian patriarchal system.-Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review -- Marilyn Stasio * New York Times Book Review *
This fine social history charts the changing patterns of using poison - from arsenic to strychnine - but also shines a light on domestic desperation in Victorian times-Kathryn Hughes, Guardian -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *
This intoxicating social history explores the rise of poison in the Victorian era. Combining archival research with a chemist's expertise, Stratmann chronicles the efforts of science and the law to combat the homicidal dispenses of toxins ... Gripping and sad.-Tatler * Tatler *
