PICK YOUR POISON: Art Imitates Life In A "Killer" Way

Acclaimed thriller writers Hilary Davidson (Blood Always Tells) and Jon McGoran (Drift) are no strangers to the game of premeditated murder, a longtime facet in many genres of fiction. The most fascinating ways to kill off fictional characters don’t involve bullets or blades, and poison is just the beginning! In McGoran’s newly released biotech thriller, DEADOUT, the sequel to DRIFT, a giant biotech company creates genetically modified super bees to come to the rescue of the world’s collapsing bee colonies. But their intentions are not what they seem. Here are some other favorite fictional ways that McGoran and Davidson bring murder and mayhem to the printed page…

1. Venom

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Bees are our friends. And that’s a good thing, because if something makes them think otherwise, bad things can happen.

2. You Light Up My Life!

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Sometimes all it takes is a spark, especially if your victim's clothing is saturated with condensed air.

3. Spore, spore pitiful me!

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While fungal diseases are usually only nuisances in the developed world, a weakened immune system — or a slight genetic tweak — can transform them into horrific killers. Tip: try not to let it get into your brain.

4. Cold Snap

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Poisoning with antifreeze (ethylene glycol poisoning) — it’s cheap, plentiful, and can also ensure that your getaway car starts up in extreme weather conditions.

5. A Hard Way to Go

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An overdose of Viagra can cause a fatal heart attack, and can also make a closed casket funeral very difficult.

6. Too High

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Altitude sickness is bad enough, but combined with certain drugs, it can be the height of stupidity.

7. Kill Them in a Jif!

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Food allergies can be dangerous stuff, even more dangerous if you use foods like lupin flour, which causes the same reactions as peanut allergies.

8. It's a Gas

Carbon dioxide isn’t poisonous, but use enough to displace all the air and you not only kill your victims, you make them hide the murder weapon . When the body stops breathing, carbon dioxide quickly builds up, obliterating the evidence.

9. Shed a Tear for Me

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From red eye to dead guy. Common eye drops containing tetrahydrozoline can be deadly poison.

10. Don't Tase me Bro!

A little bit of a taser goes a long way. A little bit more can go all the way, to heart failure, that is.