A Passion For Poison

“A Passion for Poison” sounds like a Regency romance until you realise the suitor is thallium and the meet-cute ends in the pathology lab. Carol Ann Lee, with her tidy prose and unnerving calm, unspools the story of a charmer who preferred chemistry to conversation, and whose idea of a nightcap came with a periodic table. First published in 2022 by John Blake, this is true crime done properly: cool head, sharp focus, zero sensationalism. Lee peers into the teacups of history and finds fingerprints you won’t forget.

This isn’t just a roll call of crimes; it’s a study in performance. The killer plays the part of the ordinary man so well you almost applaud, right up until the curtain drops and the coroner steps on stage. Lee maps the everyday—the buses, the boarding houses, the borrowed smiles—and shows how lethal can hide inside “nothing to see here.” She asks those awkward questions about who noticed what, when, and why polite society is so good at ignoring the smell of almonds.

You’ll get forensic detail without the forensic headache, crisp pacing that refuses to rubberneck, and character portraits done in fine ink rather than spray paint. Lee has that rare knack of making you feel both clever and complicit: you’re turning pages, you’re solving puzzles, and then—oh—perhaps you missed the obvious clue because it was wearing a cardigan.

This copy, ISBN 9781789464344, is in Very Good condition—which, in the civilized dialect of book folk, means the cover is presentable, the spine is steadfast, and no one has used it as a drinks coaster. The sort of book you can read on the train without your seatmate judging you (until they Google the plot and change seats).

Purveyed with perverse pride by Crappy Old Books: where the branding is shabby and the stock is not. We specialise in volumes that behave themselves while misbehaving on the inside. File under Domestic Alchemy, Polite Society at Its Worst, and “I’ll just have water, thanks.” Read it with a biscuit, but maybe not a suspicious one.

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