Finger-Licking Poison: Difference between revisions

* ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'': In an attempt to keep {{spoiler|[[Aristotle]]'s ''Poetics''}} hidden, an evil monk poisons the page corners so anyone who reads it will die before they can tell others about it.

* [[Older Than Print]]: ''[[Arabian Nights|The Arabian Nights]]'' tale ''The Tale of the Vizier and the Sage Duban'', wherein the Duban, sentenced to execution by a treacherous king, gives him a book with orders not to read it until after his head has been cut off. After that's done, the head comes back to life and instructs the king to turn three pages with his left hand. When the king turns the pages (naturally, licking his finger along the way) and finds nothing written there, the Duban essentially tells him the pages were poisoned and if the Duban had to go, he was [[Taking You with Me|taking the king with him]]. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for a [[Losing Your Head|severed head]]. (Unfortunately, this makes the vizier who ''caused'' the execution a [[Karma Houdini]], as he didn't touch the book and sure as hell wouldn't after seeing what happened to his king.)

* This technique is mentioned in ''[[Bridge of Birds]]'', with the added element that the books in question were pornographic.

* Classic example: in Alexandre Dumas' ''[[La Reine Margot]]'' (AKA ''Marguerite de Valois''), poisoned book is used in attempt on King Henry of Navarre's life, but the plan backfires with disastrous results. Earlier in the same novel, even more devious plan to poison Henry via his paramour's lipstick is employed {{spoiler|but thwarted by the would-be poisoner who couldn't murder said paramour in cold blood}}.

 

* ''[[Eleventh Hour|11th Hour]]'' used this one early in its first (only?) season.

* In the ''[[CSI New York]]'' episode"Page Turner", the killer coats the pages of a book in thallium to poison his victims.

* Non-poison example: In ''Red Seas Under Red Skies'', Locke and Jean win a card game by sprinkling a sleep-inducing drug on the cards. One of their opponents is notorious for eating and licking her fingers while she plays, and she forfeits the game when the drug puts her to sleep.

 

* There was a ''[[Remington Steele]]'' episode where the poison was in the glue on some envelopes Steele and Laura were expected to lick.

* In ''[[Seinfeld]]'' George's fiancee is accidentally poisoned by the cheap glue on the wedding invitation envelopes, because George was too stingy to pay for better ones (and too lazy to seal any invitations himself).

 

=== Tabletop Games ===

 

=== Video Games ===

* Finger-licking isn't explicitly mentioned, but in ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'', Agostino Barbarigo dies after receiving several poisoned letters from the Assassins.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]

[[Category:Toxic Tropes]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]