The Royal Art of Poison

With dramatic timing, narrator Susie Berneis enthralls and disgusts with a thorough look at how poisons were used to beautify, maim, and kill kings, queens, mistresses, and children. This audiobook recounts stories of how this was done and who did it. Berneis's rhythm is so dramatic that listeners almost expect to hear a drumroll at the end of her delivery. Many times doctors' treatments left patients worse off or killed them. Cosmetics, a favorite with the wealthy and the royals, were made from lead and at the very least made people ill or in the extreme killed them. Admittedly, the subject is gruesome, but Berneis's performance savors the humor and keeps the subject from devolving into the macabre. E.E.S. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine