'Vivid, pungent and perilous' CHRIS BROOKMYRE

'Evocative...brilliant plotting' REBECCA GRIFFITHS


An intricate and darkly atmospheric thriller set in Victorian London, perfect for readers of Elly Griffiths' The Stranger Diaries, Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions and Stuart Turton's The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.

Summoned to the riverside by the desperate, scribbled note of an old friend, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find themselves on board the seamen's floating hospital, an old hulk known only as The Blood, where prejudice, ambition and murder seethe beneath a veneer of medical respectability.

On shore, a young woman, a known prostitute, is found drowned in a derelict boatyard. A man leaps to his death into the Thames, driven mad by poison and fear. The events are linked - but how? Courting danger in the opium dens and brothels of the waterfront, certain that the Blood lies at the heart of the puzzle, Jem and Will embark on a quest to uncover the truth. In a hunt that takes them from the dissecting tables of a private anatomy school to the squalor of the dock-side mortuary, they find themselves involved in a dark and terrible mystery.


Praise for E.S. Thomson:

'It's rare that a book is Gothic enough for me, but Beloved Poison is killing it. The blood, the bones...' LAURA PURCELL

'Complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable' DAILY EXPRESS

'Marvellous, vivid . . . breathtakingly dark' JANET ELLIS

'Jem Flockhart books are the best I've read in years' KIRSTY LOGAN

'A marvel . . . thoroughly engrossing' MARY PAULSON ELLIS

"Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night" - Evening Telegraph on Beloved Poison

"Following on from the events of acclaimed debut Beloved Poison, Dark Asylum vividly portrays the Gothic horror and questionable science of Victorian mental asylums in chilling detail. Meticulously researched and masterfully plotted, E.S. Thomson has written a complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable tale" - Daily Express

"Dark Asylum positively oozes gothic menace, and the author's evocation of the city at that time is visceral and engagingly morbid . . . A first class piece of historical crime writing" - Big Issue

"You can almost feel the evil miasma rising from the page" - Kirkus Reviews on Beloved Poison

"This outstanding debut historical enthrals with its meticulously researched details" - Library Journal on Beloved Poison

"From the first page to the last, I enjoyed every brilliantly written, and often hideous, detail ... A splendid read" - Cambridge Magazine on Beloved Poison

"A historical novel to be savoured" - The National on Beloved Poison

"Meticulously researched and masterfully plotted, E S Thomson has written a complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable tale." - Daily Express

"Deliciously dark and vividly atmospheric, menace oozes from every page. Terrific for lovers of historical noir" - Saga

"Love evocative descriptions of Victorian London and brilliant plotting? Then grab a copy of this!" - Rebecca Griffiths, author of The Primrose Path

"Dark and vividly imagined, this Jem Flockhart mystery captures the squalor of Victorian London as it tells an engrossing story of medical misdeeds" - Choice Magazine

". . . a tale of darkest London in the 1850s. This fine novel, featuring a most unusual detective, blends Victorian melodrama and historical reality" - Sunday Express

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From its grime-crusted back alleys to its blood-spattered operating tables, The Blood emanates atmospheric appeal. Victorian England, in all its smog, lace and polluted waters, is compellingly conjured in every sentence, giving the setting not only a historical bent, but a macabre horror aesthetic as well. Meanwhile, Jem, who seems to pace the pages with flurried intellect as well as desperation, is a refreshing twist on the Sherlock Holmes archetype. Disguised as a man to get ahead in her career and seeking her long-lost love, Jem provides the otherwise plot-driven book's contemplative moments that strengthen larger themes of gender, power and ambition.
Featuring a feminist Sherlock Holmes in a Dickensian setting, The Blood delivers quick pacing and satisfyingly grotesque set pieces.