Tag Archives: Poisoning

This page lists books that contain trigger warnings for the depiction of poisonings.

The Mane Event by Shelly Laurenston

Shelly Laurenston turns up the heat with two sizzling novellas. In “Christmas Pride”: How come all the good-looking ones are insane? That’s what runs through NYPD cop Desiree “Dez” MacDermot’s mind the minute she hooks up again with her childhood buddy, Mace Llewellyn. It isn’t just the way he stares at her with those too-sexy gold eyes, as if he could devour her on the spot. Or the six-four, built-like-a-Navy-SEAL bod-o-death. It isn’t even that he sniffs her neck and purrs, making her entire body tingle. It’s more about that disconcerting, shifting-from-man-to-lion… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Misogyny & slut-shaming
  • Fatphobia & body-shaming recounted
  • Divorce recounted (protagonist)
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Medical procedure (on-page, autopsy)
  • Murder
  • Poisoning
  • Military & naval service recounted (protagonists)

This Is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter

For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night. Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the Mc… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape recounted
  • Incest & child sexual abuse
  • Domestic violence
  • Alcohol & drug abuse
  • Graphic blood & injury depiction and autopsy scene
  • Murder
  • Poisoning

The Wicked Betrayal by Marion Blackwood

After the events surrounding the Dagger of Orias, Kenna believes that her circumstances could not possibly get any worse. But fortune is a cruel mistress. Unexpected betrayal throws her life into turmoil, and while she is still trying to recover from the shock, she also has to somehow come up with a plan to save her life. The idea is simple. And dangerous beyond belief. In order to get out of the desperate situation she has ended up in, Kenna is going to take on Mordren Darkbringer. But the Prince of Shadows is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Slut-shaming & victim-blaming
  • Parental abandonment & neglect
  • Depression & suicidal ideation
  • Alcohol consumption & drugging
  • Gambling
  • Blood & injury depiction, including dead bodies
  • Death of a parent mentioned
  • Attempted kidnapping & captivity
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Home invasion
  • Blackmail
  • Building collapse
  • Fire
  • Conscription
  • Homelessness

Ruthless Villains by Marion Blackwood

In a world where magic is distributed equally, there are some people who refuse to share their power. Dark mages. Lethal. Selfish. And utterly without morals. Audrey Sable is one of them. As a poison mage, she can bring men to their knees with a flick of her wrist. But the man she really wants to kill will not go down so easily. Callan Blackwell is also a powerful dark mage, and he would like nothing better than to see Audrey beg for mercy at his feet. But their hatred for one another will have to wait. When the heroic champions of equality prepare to launch an attack that will wipe… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism & persecution for witchcraft
  • Intimate partner abuse & violence
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction, including decapitation, dismemberment, loss of limb & mutilation
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Strangulation
  • Poisoning
  • Physical assault (beating)
  • Home invasion
  • Kidnapping & hostage situation
  • Imprisonment
  • Blackmail

Empire of Flame and Thorns by Marion Blackwood

Trapped in the Seelie Court by a forest of thorns, Selena Hale lives at the mercy of the dragon shifters. Her only chance to gain her freedom is by entering the Atonement Trials: a deadly competition that pits fae magic users against each other. Only three people can win, and Selena intends to be one of them. There is only one problem. Draven Ryat, the ruthless commander of the dragon shifter army, is determined to make her lose. He symbolizes everything that she hates, and if he finds out that she is also a member of the secret fae rebellion. He symbolizes everything that she hates, and if he finds out that she is also a member Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Classism
  • Slavery & indentured servitude
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood & injury depiction, including medical treatment, scars, dead bodies, decapitation, & burns
  • Captivity & confinement
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Torture
  • Knife & sword violence
  • Physical assault
  • Fire
  • Poisoning
  • Loss of autonomy (mind control)
  • Military service & violence mentioned
  • Bullying

Cinder & Glass by Melissa de la Cruz

The king sends out an invitation to all the maidens in France: their presence is requested at a number of balls and events that will be held in honor of the dashing Prince Louis, who must choose a bride. Cendrillon de Louvois has more grace, beauty, and charm than anyone else in France. While she was once the darling child of the king’s favorite adviser, her father’s death has turned her into the servant of her stepmother and cruel stepsisters–and at her own chateau, too! Cendrillon–now called Cinder–manages to evade her stepmother and attend the ball, where she catches the eye of the handsome Prince Louis and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Murder by poisoning
  • Physical assault mentioned
  • Bullying

Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I’ve spent my life kneeling―to their will and to my father’s. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood. But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father’s throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life. Now I’m crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Suicidal ideation & mentions of suicide
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Infertility, stillbirths & pregnancy mentioned
  • Blood & injury depiction, including forced medical experimentation, hospitalisation, & dismemberment
  • Death of a partner during childbirth mentioned
  • Poisoning mentioned
  • Fire
  • Animal death

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

A refugee of the Great War, Poirot has settled in England near Styles Court, the country estate of his wealthy benefactor, the elderly Emily Inglethorp. When Emily is poisoned and the authorities are baffled, Poirot puts his prodigious sleuthing skills to work. Suspects are plentiful, including the victim’s much younger husband, her resentful stepsons, her longtime hired companion, a young family friend working as a nurse, and a London specialist on poisons who just happens to be visiting the nearby village.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Period-typical sexism
  • Period-typical racism & racial slurs including antisemitism, antiziganism (g slur) and mentions of blackface
  • Drugging
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Seizures (on-page)
  • Death of a mother from accidental overdose mentioned
  • Murder of a mother/mother-in-law and wife by poisoning (which was first diagnosed as death from heart failure)
  • Incarceration pending trial
  • Military service mentioned
  • Mentions of euthanising a dog

When the Bones Sing by Ginny Myers Sain

The past three years have been tough for Lucifer’s Creek, Arkansas, a small town quietly tucked away in the Ozark mountains. More than two dozen people have disappeared on the local hiking trails; there one moment, gone the next, not a trace left behind, until their buried bodies are discovered. 17-year-old Dovie doesn’t believe in magic even though she comes from a long line of women who can hear the bones of the dead sing, and for the past few years the bones have been crooning nonstop, calling out to Dovie… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & domestic violence including setting fire to a cabin with wife & child inside
  • Blood & gore depiction including dead bodies
  • Death of a mother mentioned
  • Death of a grandfather from a fall into a ravine
  • Murder by arrow to the throat
  • Gun violence & threats of gun violence
  • Physical assault (hit in the head with a rock)
  • Disappearance of a parent discussed
  • Drowning & near-drowning
  • Accidental poisoning mentioned

Stormfire by Christine Monson

Abducted on her way to boarding school, a terrified Catherine Enderly was brought from England to the coast of Ireland, the prisoner of the angry and powerful young Sean Culhane—a man sworn to vengeance against her family. Frightened but defiant, the young countess met her captor with a strength that belied her fragile loveliness. But even as Sean vowed to have his revenge on Catherine, with each encounter he became more attracted to her. Her fiery innocence was a seduction that lured the passions of long smouldering hostility into a blazing inferno of desire… Read more,

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Rape & gang-rape
  • Forced starvation
  • Miscarriage
  • Death of a mother
  • Gun & knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Whipping
  • Poisoning
  • Kidnapping & captivity
  • Napoleonic War & colonialization