Description: Intricate, elegant, and beautifully realised, The Poison Principle is a masterful book about family secrets and literary poisonings.
Review Quotes:
'Miraculously well written, compellingly readable ... a book of rare distinction.' The Times
'[Bell's] solution to the mystery was - and is - a triumph of perseverance ... enthralling.' The Guardian
'[The Poison Principle] ... measures out, in small loving spoonfuls, grains of information about [a] family story ... Between the quiet drip feed of her personal memoir, Bell mixes in stronger flavors: ingredients from criminology and psychology, botany and chemistry.' The New York Times
'A gift of a story and Bell tells it to near perfection.' The Age
'An elegantly written memoir about her search for the truth behind her family's darkest secret ... a fine thriller, a richly detailed pharmacopoeia and a splendid dissertation on references to poison in literature.' The Sydney Morning Herald