By Deborah Blum, Penguin Press, New York, N.Y. 319 pages, 25.95

From 1897 to 1915, Tammany Hall thoughtfully provided New York City with a coroner. Among them were a saloonkeeper, plumber, milkman, a physician who was a full-time drunk, and other bumblers gifted in issuing false death certificates for a fee, if a murder or suicide were pressingly at hand.