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Beloved Poison Paperback – March 1, 2016
The object I drew out was dusty and mildewed, and blotched with dark rust-coloured stains. It smelt of time and decay, sour, like old books and parchments. The light from the chapel's stained glass window blushed red upon it, and upon my hands, as if the thing itself radiated a bloody glow.
Ramshackle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St Saviour's Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors the doctors bicker and fight. Ambition, jealousy and hatred seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything, but says nothing.
And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes across these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary's old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open a long-forgotten past - with fatal consequences.
In a trail that leads from the bloody world of the operating theatre and the dissecting table to the notorious squalor of Newgate and the gallows, Jem's adversary proves to be both powerful and ruthless. As St Saviour's destruction draws near, the dead are unearthed from their graves whilst the living are forced to make impossible choices. And murder is the price to be paid for the secrets to be kept.
'Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night' - Evening Telegraph
'Beloved Poison is a marvellous, vivid book with a thoughtful, engaging protagonist at its centre - and a fascinating story to tell. It's immaculately researched and breathtakingly dark' - Janet Ellis, author of The Butcher's Hook
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHachette Australia
- Publication dateMarch 1, 2016
- Dimensions9.21 x 1.22 x 6.18 inches
- ISBN-101472122267
- ISBN-13978-1472122261
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night―Alex Gordon, Evening Telegraph
From the first page to the last, I enjoyed every brilliantly written, and often hideous, detail ... A splendid read―Cambridge Magazine
You can almost feel the evil miasma rising from the page―Kirkus Reviews
This outstanding debut historical enthrals with its meticulously researched details―Library Journal
ES Thompson's Jem Flockhart books are the best I've read in years. Jem is just my kind of heroine: scarred, smart, complex, and unapologetically queer―Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Hachette Australia (March 1, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1472122267
- ISBN-13 : 978-1472122261
- Item Weight : 1.14 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.21 x 1.22 x 6.18 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
E. S. Thomson was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire. She has a PhD in the history of medicine and tries to fit as much history of medicine into her novels as possible. Her work has been shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award, the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award, the William McIlvanney Award, and long listed for the CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger Award. Elaine divides her time between Edinburgh and Gateshead. She writes by night, works as a university lecturer by day, and brings up her two sons by herself. She is mostly really tired as a result.
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The book’s greatest strength, however, is not in any of these features but in the atmosphere that surrounds the story and characters: the sights, sounds, and smells of the hospital and its surroundings… especially the smells. I don’t think I have ever read a book in which smell played as great a part. And be warned, most of the smells (and sights and sounds) are highly unpleasant: If you have a vivid imagination, I recommend keeping a bunch of flowers or something nearby to offer you a literal breather. Readers are also given a harsh (but accurate) look at medicine in the days before either anesthetics or germ theory (though one forward-looking hospital doctor seems to have run into, or independently thought of, some of Lister’s ideas). The intense, dark mood that pervades the book, along with details such as a vividly described amputation, may be too much for some readers, but I found them fascinating. There is no indication that this book is the start of a series, but I hope the author will write more mystery fiction; the level of detail provided is outstanding.
Jem comes across six tiny coffins inside the infirmary’s old chapel, and is intent on discovering where they came from and what their significance is. But Jem has stumbled across something which others wish to remain secret, and for which they’ll commit murder.
Jem’s search encompasses the grisly, bloody world of the surgeons, from the operating theatre to the dissecting table, as well as the squalor of Newgate. Jem has a dangerous adversary, and a number of different mysteries to try to solve. In the meantime, St Saviour’s end draws nearer. A doctor is murdered. The dead are exhumed from the graves and the living try to make sense of some awful choices. In some ways, this novel reminded me of ‘Pure’ by Andrew Miller: both share the horrors of exhuming mass graves, of the impact of change on those least able to embrace it. But the stories, and the secrets, are very different. In ‘Beloved Poison’ Jem Flockart’s quest is driven by a sense of loss (past, present and future). The exhumation of mass graves is an important peripheral event, whereas in ‘Pure’ it is a central defining event.
Ms Thompson has created an unforgettable story: I can almost smell St Saviour’s, feel the dirt in Newgate and envisage the death on the gallows. It’s also a difficult book to put down: what will happen to Jem next? What is the truth behind the tiny coffins? The various doctors become clear (and differently flawed) characters, while William Quartermain tries to make sense of a very different world. There are many different forms of poison in this novel, many ways of encountering harm in a world which I’m sure that William Hogarth would have recognised.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this novel for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Top reviews from other countries
Great fun and I have bought the other books in the series as I'm intrigued to see what happens to Jem next.