Title: Beloved Poison (Jem Flockhart #1)
Author: E.S Thomson
Type: Fiction
Genre: Crime, Historical, Mystery
Rating: 5 stars
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This isn't the kind of book I'd normally pick up these days. But while I was at my library on Sunday, I saw this book with a card sticking out that said "Pick Me!" Intrigued, I looked at the rest of the card. "Riveting historical detail along with horrifying anecdotes create an almost dismal, yet strangely fascinating tale that will have many readers glad to be living in the 21st century." (This is also attributed to the library's review of the book found on Goodreads.)
I checked out the book, despite the book flap that read: "And then six tiny coffins are uncovered..." because I don't care for books where children have been murdered. But this book... wow. It's not at all what it seems. In fact, this book is addicting.
Apothecary Jem Flockhart has been raised inside the walls of St. Saviour's Infirmary. However, it's been slated to be demolished. The doctors live in the past, using crude surgeries and uncleanly conditions as a normal part of their workday. Young architect, Will Quartermain, has been sent to St. Saviour's to prepare for it's destruction. He's been given the awful task of cleaning out the mass graves that reside inside the infirmary's walls.
Jem, with a secret of her own, gives Will a tour and together they find those six tiny coffins as mentioned above. When one of the coffins gives a clue about Jem's own mother, she cannot help but dig deeper to find the meaning of it all. However, opening the locked doors to the past causes great pain - murder of her friends and allies, as well as her own heartbreak as she watches her father slowly slip into the madness that has haunted her family for generations.
19th century London is described with fog, pollution, brothels, slums and antiquated medical practices that really do make me glad I did not live during that time. The author does a fantastic job of describing it all - and allows the reader to feel as though she is right there with Jem and Will in their dangerous task of finding a murderer.
