Blog Tour, Book Review. Beloved Poison by E.S.Thomson, Historical Crime Fiction

A cracking debut by E. S. Thomson! Beloved Poison engages from the start when the reader is drawn into the sordid underbelly of Victorian London, where life is cheap and medical practice competitive. To what lengths will the ambitious medical staff at St Saviour’s Infirmary go in their quest for standing and reputation?

E. S. Thomson serves up not only a well researched and tightly plotted murder mystery set in a crumbling Victorian hospital, she has created an interesting protagonist in Jem Flockhart, the deeply troubled and enigmatic apothecary. Jem’s sidekick is Will Quartermain, a very junior architect, who arrives to start the awful task of planning the demolition of the ancient hospital and its quaggy, stinking graveyard.  Never has there been a crime book with more dead bodies or bones!

Jem shows Will around the place and whilst in the old chapel they discover tiny coffins containing wooden human effigies wrapped in blood-stained cloth. How is this gruesome discovery linked with the murders that take place in and around St Saviour’s? I suspect this is where the author found inspiration in a historical incident which took place in Victorian Edinburgh.

Some of you may be familiar with the mystery of small coffin boxes containing small wooden figures which were found in a small cave near Edinburgh in 1836, each about 3-4 inches long, 17 tiny coffins altogether. The origin or meaning of these tiny coffins was never ascertained, although many theories have been put forward. Were these coffins linked to the murders committed by the infamous body-snatchers Burke and Hare, the ‘resurrection men’ in the 1820s?

The surgeons at St Saviour’s too need bodies for anatomical dissection and study. However, the Anatomy Act of 1832 made a greater number of cadavers available for dissection and by the 1850s, the setting of our story, the motive of murder to provide fresh cadavers for anatomical studies can be ruled out. So why are people being murdered in and around St Saviour’s? The answer to this question leads Jem to the dark side of prim Victorian society, such as Newgate Prison, an insane asylum and a brothel.  

For me this crime novel has it all: an atmospheric and well research historical setting with interesting yet plausible characters, a gripping plot and plenty of mystery. I’m already looking forward to E.S.Thomson’s next book. (Indiana Brown)

Published by Constable in hardback and ebook on March 3^rd 2016, both priced &14.99.