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In these murky times of enhanced foods, enhanced drugs, enhanced interrogations, and enhanced technology, forensic toxicology has become an increasingly difficult and complicated discipline.

Forensic toxicology is an interdisciplinary specialty that employs the techniques of analytical chemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology to the analysis and interpretation of drugs and chemicals in biological samples for legal purposes. It is a specialty that is usually associated with work for the police, the coroner, and the criminal law courts.

Identifying an ingested substance is often complicated by the body’s natural processes, as it is uncommon for a chemical to remain intact once it enters the body. Therefore, a forensic toxicologist (FT) may conduct chemical analyses to detect the presence of poison, measure its concentration, and assess its level of toxicity on the organism. The FT may work with a medical examiner to establish poisoning as the cause of death and identify the chemical ingredient that contributed to that death. The FT will also attempt to provide answers to questions that may arise during criminal investigations or in following court proceedings. Other FT functions might also entail investigating drug-facilitated sexual assault, assessment of poisoned emergency room patients, investigating unlawful poisoning by a third party, detecting noncompliance with policies governing the use of drugs in the workplace, screening for performance-altering tests to athletes and animals, and working with law enforcement agencies to determine whether a driver was operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The forensic toxicologist is involved not only in the analysis of body fluids and tissue for drugs and poisons but also in the interpretation of the resulting information in a judicial context. Interpreting cases that involve combinations of drugs and chemicals and their complex interactions constitutes the greatest challenge facing the forensic toxicologist.

Clarke’s Analytical Forensic Toxicology is a timely textbook that appeals to the booming public interest in forensics, which was triggered by popular television shows that have glamorized forensic work and aroused a monumental interest in it. The volume will tackle most of the issues discussed above and more, and will provide the reader with a comprehensive review of forensic toxicology. It is also a massive reference book that was written by prominent international experts. It covers all the main elements of forensic and analytical toxicology techniques as well as the important parts of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacology in general, with a particular focus on drugs of abuse.

The volume is composed of 23 chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to forensic toxicology. Chapter two discuses pharmacokinetics and metabolism. Chapter three elaborates on the common drugs of abuse, while chapter four explores other substances encountered in clinical and forensic toxicology. Subsequently, chapter five addresses workplace drug testing issues and chapter six examines alternative specimens like hair analysis and drugs in oral fluids. Chapter seven undertakes postmortem toxicology, and in chapter eight the editors attempt to instruct on clinical toxicology, therapeutic drug monitoring, in utero exposure to drugs of abuse. Chapter nine and 10 analyze drug abuse in sports and drug-facilitated sexual assault. The rest of the chapters cover every related topic to forensic and analytical toxicology. The book leaves no stone unturned starting with alcohol, drugs and driving to forensic chemistry and solid dosage form identification, to color test and thin-layer chromatography and immunoassays to ultraviolet, visible and fluorescence spectrophotometry.

In addition, the volume examines new emerging techniques in the field and even quality control and assessment. It is also equipped with a clear index, wonderful illustrations and tables, as well as a convenient abbreviation lists, and useful Web sites.

The textbook flows smoothly from chapter to chapter and provides the reader with a vast amount of information that covers broad spectrum of forensic science. The book is scientific, yet simple and jargon free. It is massive yet concise and clear. The editors have successfully disseminated and elucidated great details with scientific clarity and eloquence.

This is a volume for the professional and for the student who harbors a passion for forensics. It also makes an excellent introduction to the subject for students of forensic science, forensic toxicology, and analytical chemistry. It will also be of interest to academics teaching these courses and a detailed resource for those working in forensic science laboratories.

The book will take the reader on a panoramic journey into the land of forensic toxicology and will leave him or her enlightened and longing for more.