Howdunit: Book of Poisons is a reference book for writers that is, sadly, no longer in print. I’m still very proud of it. Even with the Internet, it’s not always easy to find just the right toxin with which your characters can wreak havoc. Book of Poisons not only gives you critical information about individual poisons, it has everything indexed by the symptoms they cause, how fast they react, what they look like, and how they’re administered. So when you need your character to fall over and turn blue at just the right time in your book, short story or screenplay, you can easily find which poisons will do that.
Book of Poisons started out as the immensely popular Deadly Doses: The Writers Guide to Poisons. Serita Stevens and I updated it several years ago, and included the most recent treatment protocols and even some new fun stuff, such as allergies and terrorist preferences. It’s never been easier to dole out fictional mayhem.