So I was really excited that I'd figured out all the kinks in the murder scenario ... but I've run into a problem. My antagonist has to poison the King's bodyguard cougars before he/she can kill the King, and I wanted the poison to work within five or six hours at the most. I was going with methanol, initially, because it was looking great to possibly have one of the cougars survive the poisoning, and then be permanently blind, thus limiting their ability to be a witness (gosh, I sound like a lunatic. I promise that I would never poison anything living in real life, really), and then there would have been more layers to my story and more clues.
Unfortunately, as I continued my research on methanol, my perfect poison turned out not to be so perfect. Though it was easily accessible, fit into the time-period, and had symptoms that could fit into my plot, it apparently takes 12-36 hours for the effects of methanol poisoning to onset, and so the possibility of using it was totally out of the question. I need something that works within the schedule of the dinner party. 12-36 hours is way, way too long.
Thankfully though, when I was America I bought this book. It has a little information on poisons, so hopefully it will help me figure something out. I'm really looking forward to finally using this book - I've had it nearly a year now and haven't used it for any of my story, but it has great information on all the details of forensics including autopsies, time of death, fingerprints, bloodstains, trace evidence and firearms, all of which I will need to know about once the detective arrives. I love doing research.
