Deborah Blum’s New York Times bestselling nonfiction book The Poisoner’s Handbook was used as supplementary reading in our first-term General/Organic/Biochemistry course. This course serves as both the first course for our Allied Health chemistry sequence and a core science course. Our goal was that, through reading this book, students would learn more about the origin of forensic chemistry in the historical context of the Jazz Age and the toxins that were often involved in poisonings near the beginning of the 20th century. Outcomes and student feedback to this initiative are discussed.