The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
"Fascinating...one of history's most important poisons—and most important murders." —Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Available at any corner shop for little money and, because tasteless, difficult to detect in food or drink, arsenic was so frequently used by potential beneficiaries of wills in the first half of the nineteenth century that it was nicknamed "the inheritor's powder." But after wealthy George Bodle died under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind several heirs, the chemist James Marsh was brought in to see if he could create an accurate test pinpointing the presence of arsenic and put this Victorian scourge to rest.
Incisive and wryly entertaining, science writer Sandra Hempel brings to life a gripping story of domestic infighting, wayward police behavior, other true-crime poisonings, and an unforgettable foray into the origins of forensic science. She also solves this almost two-hundred year-old crime.
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
Sandra Hempel. (2013). The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science. W. W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Sandra Hempel. 2013. The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science. W. W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Sandra Hempel, The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
MLA Citation (style guide)Sandra Hempel. The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 0 | 0 |
OverDrive Product Record
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0044-1/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img100.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0044-1/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img200.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0044-1/3DB/221/9D/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img150.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0044-1/3DB/221/9D/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img400.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- formats
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780393240467
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B00AN86JZY
- name: Kindle Book
- id: ebook-kindle
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780393240467
- name: OverDrive Read
- id: ebook-overdrive
- identifiers:
- mediaType
- eBook
- primaryCreator
- role: Author
- name: Sandra Hempel
- title
- The Inheritor's Powder
- dateAdded
- 2015-08-07T16:04:04.977-04:00
- contentDetails
- href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=2313993
- type: text/html
- account:
- name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
- id: 1151
- sortTitle
- Inheritors Powder A Tale of Arsenic Murder and the New Forensic Science
- crossRefId
- 2313993
- subtitle
- A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science
- id
- 3db2219d-6775-4c54-ae93-31fc3de3f4e0
- starRating
- 3.5
OverDrive MetaData
- isPublicDomain
- False
- formats
- fileName: TheInheritorsPowder_9780393240467_2313993
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 985824
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780393240467
- rights:
- type: Copying
- value: 0
- type: Printing
- value: 0
- type: Lending
- value: 0
- type: ReadAloud
- value: 0
- type: ExpirationRights
- value: 0
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- onSaleDate: 10/08/2013
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=3db2219d-6775-4c54-ae93-31fc3de3f4e0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: TheInheritorsPowder_2313993
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B00AN86JZY
- name: Kindle Book
- id: ebook-kindle
- onSaleDate: 10/08/2013
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=3db2219d-6775-4c54-ae93-31fc3de3f4e0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: TheInheritorsPowder_9780393240467_2313993
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 985811
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780393240467
- name: OverDrive Read
- id: ebook-overdrive
- onSaleDate: 10/08/2013
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=3db2219d-6775-4c54-ae93-31fc3de3f4e0&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- keywords
- value: History of Science
- value: True Crime
- value: poison
- value: British
- value: Chemistry
- value: Toxicology
- value: 19th Century
- value: Poisoning
- value: mystery
- value: murder
- value: England
- value: Medical History
- value: victorian era
- value: george bodle
- value: james marsh
- value: marsh test
- creators
- role: Author
- fileAs: Hempel, Sandra
- bioText: Sandra Hempel is a medical journalist whose work has appeared in the Times, the Sunday Times, and the Guardian. The author of The Inheritor's Powder and the award-winning The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump, she lives in London.
- name: Sandra Hempel
- publishDate
- 2013-10-15T05:00:00+01:00
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- The Inheritor's Powder
- fullDescription
"Fascinating...one of history's most important poisons—and most important murders." —Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Available at any corner shop for little money and, because tasteless, difficult to detect in food or drink, arsenic was so frequently used by potential beneficiaries of wills in the first half of the nineteenth century that it was nicknamed "the inheritor's powder." But after wealthy George Bodle died under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind several heirs, the chemist James Marsh was brought in to see if he could create an accurate test pinpointing the presence of arsenic and put this Victorian scourge to rest.
Incisive and wryly entertaining, science writer Sandra Hempel brings to life a gripping story of domestic infighting, wayward police behavior, other true-crime poisonings, and an unforgettable foray into the origins of forensic science. She also solves this almost two-hundred year-old crime.
- reviews
- premium: False
- source: Harold Schechter, author of The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial that Ushered in the Twentieth Century
- content: Readers of Sandra Hempel's un-put-downable true crime narrative will not only find themselves caught up in a grippingly suspenseful murder mystery; they will be treated to a string of brilliantly delivered lessons on everything from the origins of toxicological science to pre-Victorian medical practices to the beginnings of modern forensic detection. I can't think of another recent work that so thrillingly fulfills the two major aims of literary art: to delight and instruct.
- premium: False
- source: John Emsley, author of The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison
- content: Sandra Hempel has brilliantly researched a famous arsenic poisoning of 1833. The Inheritor's Powder not only tells the story of Bodle's murder and the trial of his grandson, with its surprise ending, but it does so in a way that sets it in the context of a time when society was undergoing profound changes, not least in dealing with the type of crime that for centuries had been virtually impossible to prove. This fascinating book could well be the next The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher.
- premium: False
- source: Library Journal, starred review
- content: This book will appeal to readers interested in the origins of forensic science as well as to readers of popular histories of science. Though nonfiction, it will likely appeal to mystery readers as well, with its vivid details, cast of potential poisoners, and curious twists in plot.
- premium: False
- source: Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of Periodic Tales and Anatomies
- content: Hempel skillfully weaves whodunit and courtroom drama to take us back to the beginnings of the controversial science of forensic toxicology.
- premium: False
- source: Holly Tucker, author of Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution
- content: Hempel weaves a diabolical tale of fractured families, their poisonous deeds, and the early scientists who found new ways to expose history's oldest crime. Told with verve and a keen eye for suspense, The Inheritor's Powder is a great detective story all the way to the very last page.
- premium: False
- source: Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
- content: Hempel's fascinating look at how the science of poison detection developed is certain to draw in readers with its masterful combination of telling details, engrossing prose, and drama... The Bodle case reads like something out of Dickens, and those fascinated by modern shows like CSI will delight in learning about the field's early days.
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
Starred review from August 19, 2013
Hempel’s fascinating look at how the science of poison detection developed is certain to draw in readers with its masterful combination of telling details, engrossing prose, and drama—the same combination that marked the author’s The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump (about the 1831 cholera epidemic that ravaged London). This time, Hempel focuses on a different dilemma for the Victorian medical profession: how to successfully determine when poison is the cause of death. “The paranoia of early Victorian Britain... saw poisoners lurking in kitchens and behind bed curtains throughout the land, their little bags of white powder at the ready.” In 1833 the strange death of farmer George Bodle and the investigation of his family members, with whom he lived, frames the history of scientists’ struggles to develop foolproof tests for the presence, in the victims’ digestive tracts, of arsenic—the most commonly used poison used at the time. The Bodle case reads like something out of Dickens, and those fascinated by modern shows like CSI will delight in learning about the field’s early days.
- popularity
- 63
- links
- self:
- href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/3db2219d-6775-4c54-ae93-31fc3de3f4e0/metadata
- type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
- self:
- id
- 3db2219d-6775-4c54-ae93-31fc3de3f4e0
- starRating
- 3.6
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0044-1/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img100.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0044-1/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img200.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0044-1/3DB/221/9D/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img150.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0044-1/3DB/221/9D/{3DB2219D-6775-4C54-AE93-31FC3DE3F4E0}Img400.jpg
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- isPublicPerformanceAllowed
- False
- languages
- code: en
- name: English
- subjects
- value: Law
- value: Science
- value: True Crime
- value: Nonfiction
- publishDateText
- 10/15/2013
- otherFormatIdentifiers
- type: ISBN
- value: 9780393349887
- mediaType
- eBook
- shortDescription
"Fascinating...one of history's most important poisons—and most important murders." —Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Available at any corner shop for little money and, because tasteless, difficult to detect in food or drink, arsenic was so frequently used by potential beneficiaries of wills in the first half of the nineteenth century that it was nicknamed "the inheritor's powder." But after wealthy George Bodle died under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind several heirs, the chemist James Marsh was brought in to see if he could create an accurate test pinpointing the presence of arsenic and put this Victorian scourge to rest.
Incisive and wryly entertaining, science writer Sandra Hempel brings to life a gripping story of domestic infighting, wayward police behavior, other true-crime poisonings, and an unforgettable foray into the origins of forensic science. She also solves this almost two-hundred year-old crime.
- sortTitle
- Inheritors Powder A Tale of Arsenic Murder and the New Forensic Science
- crossRefId
- 2313993
- subtitle
- A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science
- publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company
