While Australia has been served well by Ben Selinger over the years with titles such as Chemistry in the Marketplace and Why the Watermelon Won't Ripen Under Your Armpit, good popular chemistry books are generally something of a rarity, which makes John Emsley's latest offering very welcome.

The format is simple: take five toxic members of the periodic table, explain their discovery and uses; tell how and why each of them is lethal to humans; then, in a final flourish, dip into the archives of forensic science and recount the deed of murderers who chose them as poisons.

It's a fine plan. There's a gem on nearly every page, and the blend of science, biography, psychology and whodunit is irresistible.

The great figures of history are here: the deaths of Mozart and Beethoven are touched upon, and those of King Charles II of England and Napoleon are discussed in depth.

Most tragic are the accidents.

Danbury, Connecticut, has long been the heart of the U.S. hat industry and, as recently as the 1940s, its workers died with alarming regularity. As part of the manufacturing process, the felt from which so many hats were made was treated with mercury nitrate. Dust from the treated felt contaminated the air, and the afflicted would develop a condition known as the 'Danbury shakes'. Such trembling is now known to be a symptom of mercury poisoning, along with irritability, irrational behaviour and even paranoia. The condition yielded the expression 'as mad as a hatter'.

Most of the substances and the names will be familiar to Cosmos readers, but there are surprises.

Thallium, for example, a thumping great atom buried deep among its fellow heavyweights of the periodic table, attacks the human central nervous system by mimicking a much lighter-weight element, potassium.

It's this sort of detail that helps underpin the appeal of The Elements of Murder with real substance, delivered in an enthusiastic and highly entertaining manner. Here's hoping for more from John Emsley.