Nicholas Evans , author of the best-selling 1995 novel The Horse Whisperer , is ill after eating poisonous mushrooms while vacationing in Scotland. The 58-year-old Evans, his wife, her sister and the sister's husband became sick after cooking and eating the mushrooms – which included the highly toxic variety Cortinarius speciosissimus — which they had picked in the woods August 23. Cortinarius speciosissimus is known to attack the kidneys. All four had received dialysis treatment at ...