u/listentomelovelett

Hey all! Author here. I’m writing a historical mystery and need help with making a plot point realistic. I’m planning on having one of my novel’s victims be poisoned by a cigarette. I’m having trouble figuring out the acute symptoms and timeline to death of various poisons. Since the book is set in 1959 in rural Scotland, there’s any number of poisons that I could use. I was thinking arsenic since it would be readily available in this time pair period as a rodenticide and generally kills pretty quickly. But HOW quickly? And is it caustic enough to prevent the victim from communicating after inhaling the poison in a cigarette?

What other poisons should I consider? I would love to use something unusual if yall have any suggestions!

edit: what about mercury? I feel like the flavor would be godawful, but could someone theoretically inject it into a cigarette and then the person die from such a direct inhalation of the fume? I feel like a crazy person googling this stuff Lol

It's 1959, and if an historic drought isn't bad enough, it turns out murder is terrible for tourism. All Detective Inspector Jack Penny wants to do with his summer is solve petty crimes and flirt with pretty tourists. Investigating twisted poisonings and confronting the specters of the past are not on his to-do list. Unfortunately, both challenges arrive in the Cotswolds’ village of Buxton-on-the-Water on the same day… riding on the heels of Jack’s estranged wife.

Forensic expert Charlotte Buchanan lied. She said she wanted a country holiday to work on her next mystery novel, but in truth, she wants to say goodbye. Perhaps it’s ten years too late, but Charlotte is finally going to ask Jack Penny for a divorce. With a lifelong, incurable illness looming, she refuses to be a burden to him. She didn’t expect to be swept up in a murder investigation, and prolonged contact makes it difficult to keep her diagnosis a secret from the man she never stopped loving.

When the phantom poisoner strikes again, serving up another dramful of whiskey and two more bodies, Jack fights to put past traumas behind him to focus on his duty. Yet he is drawn to Charlotte like iron to a magnet, and as the pair strike sparks, Jack can’t help but be driven to dangerous distraction by the mystery of the woman he still desires.

Triggers: PTSD, chronic illness

Release date: August 18, 2026

ARCs will be sent out as applications are submitted. Please read as soon as you can!

Application link here: https://forms.gle/M2m7f9GzmKYYqxGR8

https://preview.redd.it/t0l87lvqjuch1.jpg?width=1650&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b469b94d4b81cae0c1654f6192009d1606772958