From the bestselling author of A Beautiful Poison comes another spellbinding historical novel full of intrigue, occult mystery, and unexpected twists.New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is … the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t be—can it?
A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won’t rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister’s death. Unfortunately, Tillie’s addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she’s taking more and more laudanum…and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.
Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real—or whether she can trust those closest to her.
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What a ride this book was. Turn of the century New York. Dracula has just come out. No book I’ve ever read has ever made thank God for the protection of the FDA like this one did. Its got to be the most realistic historical fiction I’ve read to date. You hear in passing about how things were back then, about how they discovered powerful narcotics and used them as medicine. Think Morphine, Opium, Heroine, and the like. But in reading historical fiction you simply don’t see mention of it. This one is chocked full of it, and I suspect it’s likely more the truth about times back them than we realize. Disclaimer- if you are sensitive to reading about drug use this book does contain it. However, it’s not intentional in the fact that these medications are prescribed by a doctor and are easily obtained at nearby pharmacies- so they simply trusted doctors and were unaware of the addictions that were taking hold of them.
Meanwhile, as in so many thrillers, the main character’s sister’s strange vampire-like murder leaves her obsessed with finding the truth. She’s left to be scolded by her overbearing grandmother for not keeping her place and her curiosities thrusting her into a side of life that both delights and intrigues her, where she meets some wonderful friends that assist her in her search for the truth. She gets herself into trouble, her grandmother’s opinions be damned. I liked her character, bookish and smart and non-conforming to the traditions that women often had thrust upon them at this time.
The ending- which I thought I had figured- I absolutely didn’t. It was a great ending. This book left me with my jaw dropped and cringing in more than one place. Very enjoyable read.
I really wanted to like this book and it has a lot going for it but I kept waiting for it to stop feeling like a book for young adults and that did not happen. For young adults, it seems like an excellent book.
OPIUM AND ABSINTHE by Lydia Kang is a gothic novel set in the 1890’s around the time Bram Stoker’s Dracula was released. When her sister is found dead, drained of blood with two holes in her neck, Tillie is determined to find who killed her. Was it a vampire? With her own issues to deal with, plus the discouragement of her family and those surrounding her, Tillie faces an uphill battle. Luckily, she finds a friend and ally in Ian, a newsie and would-be journalist, who likes Tillie for herself and not who her family thinks she should be.
I enjoyed the plotline but had a bit of a difficult time with the writing and the characters. It was a harder for me to connect with Tillie, I wasn’t sure I liked her and her actions frustrated me at times. This one was good, but not necessarily for me, as I struggle with gothic novels.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
#OpiumandAbsinthe #LydiaKang #LakeUnionPublishing
The unpleasant aspects of a murder mystery and drug abuse were made entertaining by the well-drawn characters and clever plot.
I haven’t read any historical mysteries in quite a while, but when I saw this one had the folklore of vampires, I couldn’t resist. From page one, I was hooked on this story. It started off with Tillie getting injured from a horse-riding accident. She gets treated with some opium, and slowly the opium addiction Tillie faces starts to develop. I could tell Kang did a lot of research on the history of medicine during this time. I loved how it was weaved into the story and had a big part of what challenges Tillie faced.
The mystery of her sister’s death was also well set up. There were a lot of twists and turns, and I didn’t know who to trust. I really loved how much suspense and mystery there was. Although there were some parts that felt a little slow, I felt it was good pacing overall.
If you enjoy Historical Fiction and Amateur Sleuths, I highly recommend!
Tillie Pembroke, a young woman who lives in her head and who embarrasses her mother at every turn because of her awkwardness, is tossed to the ground by her horse during a fox hunt. Although she suffers a broken collar bone, there is little or no sympathy. The family’s doctor doses her with opium for the pain. While she is suffering, her family withholds the information that her beloved sister has gone missing. She is sent to the doctor’s office with her lady’s maid and hears a newsie trying to sell his newspapers calling out the headlines from the most sensational articles in that afternoon’s edition. One of the articles is about a young woman found murdered near where her sister went missing, the article says she was killed by a vampire. Tillie knows the young woman is her sister, Lucy. The family’s solution to Tillie’s inconsolable grief at losing the one person in the world who understood her was to keep her in a drug-induced stupor. One of her mother’s few visits to her sick bed leads her to believe it is time for Tillie to stop using the pain medication. While in the grip of her addiction to opium, Tillie vows she will find her sister’s killer.
Kang’s novel is set New York City in 1899. She has created a sympathetic character in Tillie. Her book starts off somewhat slowly as she introduces her characters and shows her readers that not all opium addicts were addicted in the city’s opium dens and not all were men. Kang show us how a young society woman got addicted to opium. Kang has a number of twists and turns that will keep the reader engaged in Tillie’s search for the killer even as more young women are killed in the same manner as in the book that is flying off the shelves, Dracula by Bram Stoker. Kang is able to show Tillie’s addiction at its worse as she soon loses the ability to tell what is true and what is not, who she can trust and who she shouldn’t.
If you love historical mysteries with unconventional characters, you’ll love this book.
My thanks to Lake Union and Amazon for an eArc.
Interesting historical fiction/ murder mystery. Very well written!
Once I started reading, I found myself fully engaged and couldn’t put it down!
I loved the well written characters and the plot was great!
4 stars.
Thanks to Netgalley the publisher and author for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.