Many writers are haunted by the problems of eugenics. So March, from novel to novel, strives to at least somehow improve the human race. True, she does this in a very unique way: she simply kills another scoundrel, and then explains how she did it. And the writer kills more and more often by chemical means... In the novel “Drink and Die,” chemistry is not even ranked among the greatest sciences. Marsh’s interpretation of the periodic table, it turns out, can eclipse Homer’s “Odyssey,” “The Song of the Nibelungs,” and “The Little Humpbacked Horse.” In short, chemistry is an art. Aborigines and guests of a small resort town on the coast of England have to see this from their own experience. Having witnessed the ingenious poisoning of rat poison during a harmless game of darts. Of course, the matter turned out to be so complicated that without a bottle, as well as without Scotland Yard, it was impossible to figure it out. The exotic drink “Amontillado” acted as a bottle. Well, in the role of Yard is our old friend Inspector Alleyn, who, judging by the last few Marsh novels, has managed to get pretty good at chemistry. And also in the life associated with it. Or rather, in death. The inspector proves this brilliantly. True, he himself almost lost his best friend Fox, who drank and... almost died.