Review: ‘The Poison Artist’
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Review: ‘The Poison Artist’

After the last murder mystery I read I wanted something happier, something where no one dies, something motivational.

Apparently my mind wanted more murder mysteries because those were the only books I found interesting when I was looking for a new book.

Thankfully, “The Poison Artist” by Jonathan Moore redeemed the genre from the last book I read.

Dr. Caleb Maddox is a toxologist and is working on obtaining funding for more research.

He needs people to volunteer to go without medication to measure the chemical effects of pain. This, along with a troubled childhood and a harsh breakup lead him to the bar one night. He meets a beautiful woman named Emmeline over some absinthe.

Moore began this novel by introducing Maddox’s character, but only halfway. He started with a fight with his now ex-girlfriend and hinted that he had been discovered by police when he was younger. Some of this is more important at the end than other parts, but it leaves the reader with a sense of wonder and curiosity over what happens which draws you in until it gets to the real mystery.

Bodies keep showing up in the rivers.

What sets this apart is when they realize the lab equipment is not giving them accurate information. However, when Caleb looks into things with his personal lab he can tell the order of the chemicals and how much pain the people are in, to know they are clearly being tortured.

After discovering a body that had been in the river for over a month they realize the bodies are being tazed as well.

The middle bit drags, and took me a little longer to get through.

Emmeline and Maddox are building a relationship, and he keeps saying he feels bad because it is so soon after his breakup but he keeps trying to find her and meet with her. It is all very cliché of the beautiful mysterious woman who takes charge in the relationship.

She takes charge so much that at one point Maddox allows her to drive  him somewhere without telling him where, while he is blindfolded and murder victims are showing up. It did add a nice touch when he found the chemical that’s been found in murder victim’s bodies in her bathroom that night.

The writing had one flaw.

Maddox was good at literally everything he needed to do with no explanation. He could pick locks, cook a five star meals, hotwire a motorcycle, work boats, do science and computer sciences. Sorry, that’s not realistic one bit.

For some reason he had a lot of cash on him at one point, enough to pay a $300 bar tab in cash for no reason. He wasn’t on the run or anything. So, just for convenience, why not put it on a card?

The ending was quite predictable and psychologically thrilling.

There was one torture scene where I considered putting the book down forever. But then I wanted to see if my prediction was right, so I kept reading.

There were a couple parts where I was just thinking –why? But I was kept on the edge of my seat and always coming back for more.

“The Poison Artist” gets 9 murders out of 10.

Jenna Koslowski
Arts and Entertainment Editor
jkosl669@uwsp.edu

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