Pick your poison
Poison is one of the better ways to commit murder - on the page that is! Personally, I like this 'weapon' as it can be easily concealed, comes in many different forms and some types are readily available for the amateur villain. Besides, in most cases it's not as messy.
We all know about the most common types of poison such as arsenic and anti-freeze. I like to dig a little deeper and find kinds which you might not expect to be used.
In Cocktails at Sunset, residents of the elderly living facility are murdered via an overdose of medication. Too much of a Viagra-like drug in a person who takes heart medications can trigger dangerously low blood pressure.
Alcohol in high quantities has the potential to be lethal. It might be difficult to force someone to drink enough to be deadly but it would work in an IV. How easy for the killer to inject the victim so that an overdose blamed.
As an Arizona resident, I know the leaves of the Oleander bush are dangerous. Animals can consume the flowers but humans cannot. Imagine making a lovely cup of tea from the blossoms. Who would suspect a cup of tea to be dangerous? I love that this poison is readily available throughout the area and anyone could easily use it.
A drug you may see in a future Jayne Stanford mystery is used in operating rooms. Succinchlorine freezes muscles and can only be found in a test of the urine. At one time there were only two labs in the U.S. which can test for this drug. This would be much harder to obtain but since it wouldn't be tested for in a routine autopsy it's use would go undetected.
Hydrofluiric acid which is used in several industries, such as metal work, is s slow killer that can seep in through the victim's skin and destroy bones.
Warfarin which is used as a blood thinner for many patients with potential for a stroke was originally used as a rat poison. Too much of this will eventually cause the body to hemorrhage internally.
Cozy mysteries don't include graphic violence so poison gives the author a wide range of tools to use - that is - as long as the act isn't described in too much detail.
Happy Trails,
Leslie
Visit my website.
We all know about the most common types of poison such as arsenic and anti-freeze. I like to dig a little deeper and find kinds which you might not expect to be used.
In Cocktails at Sunset, residents of the elderly living facility are murdered via an overdose of medication. Too much of a Viagra-like drug in a person who takes heart medications can trigger dangerously low blood pressure.
Alcohol in high quantities has the potential to be lethal. It might be difficult to force someone to drink enough to be deadly but it would work in an IV. How easy for the killer to inject the victim so that an overdose blamed.
As an Arizona resident, I know the leaves of the Oleander bush are dangerous. Animals can consume the flowers but humans cannot. Imagine making a lovely cup of tea from the blossoms. Who would suspect a cup of tea to be dangerous? I love that this poison is readily available throughout the area and anyone could easily use it.
A drug you may see in a future Jayne Stanford mystery is used in operating rooms. Succinchlorine freezes muscles and can only be found in a test of the urine. At one time there were only two labs in the U.S. which can test for this drug. This would be much harder to obtain but since it wouldn't be tested for in a routine autopsy it's use would go undetected.
Hydrofluiric acid which is used in several industries, such as metal work, is s slow killer that can seep in through the victim's skin and destroy bones.
Warfarin which is used as a blood thinner for many patients with potential for a stroke was originally used as a rat poison. Too much of this will eventually cause the body to hemorrhage internally.
Cozy mysteries don't include graphic violence so poison gives the author a wide range of tools to use - that is - as long as the act isn't described in too much detail.
Happy Trails,
Leslie
Visit my website.
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