Poison is a woman’s weapon. Agatha Christie made that point in The Mysterious Affair at Styles and detective Sherlock Holmes said as much in the 1945 film Pursuit to Algiers. Even the HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones agrees. But is it true? asks author and illustrator Lisa Perrin.
“Perhaps women are associated with poison because of the lone lineage of women working with plants as healers and wise women in their communities,” she suggests. “Anyone who knows how to harness plants to heal might just as easily know how to use them to harm.”
The common assumption is that women revert to poison for murder because they are weaker or more duplicitous. But statistics don’t back this up. Poison is a gender-neutral weapon of choice, according to most studies of murders that have been solved, but that doesn’t stop women from being stereotyped as more likely to poison. And this book will do little to change that perception.
Perrin compiled this book of true crime to explore the historical uses for poisons and the women who used them. She recounts stories of women from all corners of the world who used poison to get revenge, gain riches, rid themselves of abusive husbands, or to silence the manic thoughts running through their heads.