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Howdunit:  Book of Poisons
A Guide for Writers

by Serita Stevens and Anne Bannon

 

If the writing project closest to your heart is that murder mystery that you have started, but you really don't want blood and gore at the murder scene, you can kill off the victim with poison.  Here is everything you need to know to pull off the deed. In the Howdunit: Book of Poisons, the first book in the new series, you can find the information you need to make your novel or short story compelling and realistic, whether you are a novice or veteran writer. If you're the screenwriter of a show like Law and Order, a crime novelist, or a short story author, you'll find this book much more informative and useful than the medical tomes you have been looking through.

There are chapters that explain symptoms, administration, reaction time, and toxicity levels of everything from the classic arsenic, cyanide and strychnine to household poisons, deadly plants, insects, snakes, medicine, industrial poisons, street drugs, chemical and biological weapons, and much more. 

A glossary of medical terms with cross-reference makes research fast and easy. Today's agents, editors, and readers easily spot inaccuracies in a novel or short story submission, so you need to get your facts straight before you send that manuscript in.

Serita Stevens is an RN specializing in forensics who has studied poisons for many years, and an award nominated author of 32 books. Anne Bannon is a freelance  journalist and contributing editor for Homeland Protection Professional magazine. Her work has appeared in several magazines and newspapers across the country. She is also the author of the mystery novel, Tyger, Tyger.

If you need to know how a villain would gain access to a poison, how to administer it, and what the effects on the victim would be, this is the reference to help you figure out all of the details of a good and proper poisoning. You will need to know what the forensic specialists will be looking for to determine the cause of death, and how your villain can try to foil their efforts. You can trust the Writer's Digest Howdunit series to give you accurate, detailed information that is easy to use to make your novel or short story compelling and realistic.

Now, back to that murder plot I was cooking up...

The Book

Writer's Digest Books
January 2, 2007
Trade Paperback

13: 978-1-58297-456-9
10: 1-58297-456-X

Nonfiction/How To/Writers
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The Reviewer

Beverly J. Rowe
Reviewed 2007
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© 2006 MyShelf.com