E. S. Thomson

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.

Beloved Poison

'Superb' Sunday Express A gripping and darkly atmospheric thriller set in Victorian London, perfect for fans of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Strangers Diaries and The Silent Companions. What secret grips Corvus Hall? Visiting the Great Exhibition to view the wax anatomical models of the famous but reclusive Dr Silas Strangeway, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find a severed hand, perfectly dissected and laid out amongst the exhibits. Assuming it to be a prank by medical students they return it to Dr Strangeway, who works at Corvus Hall, a private anatomy school run by Dr Alexander Crowe - once one of Edinburgh's most revered anatomists. Jem's persistence reveals that a body does indeed lie in the school's mortuary, minus its right hand. The body has no provenance. More macabre still, its face has been dissected making identification impossible. All is not as it should be at Corvus Hall. Dr Crowe's daughter, Lilith, visits the mortuary in the dead of night. Her twin sisters, Sorrow and Silence - one blind and one deaf - exert a malign influence over the students. Organs, freshly dissected, appear in the anatomical museum. Fear grips lecturers and students, even as something unseen binds them in a bloody pact of silence. Praise for E. S. Thomson's novels: 'Gothic. Gory. Glorious . . . E. S. 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 Gloaming 'Love evocative descriptions of Victorian London and brilliant plotting? Then grab a copy of this!' Rebecca Griffiths, author of The Primrose Path 'Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night' Evening Telegraph 'Jem Flockhart's London is vivid, pungent and perilous' Chris Brookmyre 'Complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable' Daily Express 'A marvellous, vivid book' Janet Ellis 'Jem Flockhart is a marvel . . . This vivid journey into the dark side of the human soul is a thoroughly engrossing tale' Mary Paulson Ellis, author of The Other Mrs Walker

A Jem Flockhart Mystery

Surgeons' Hall

'Love evocative descriptions of Victorian London and brilliant plotting? Then grab a copy of this!' Rebecca Griffiths, author of The Primrose Path A world of secrets, murder and betrayal lie behind the London waterfront . . . 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. x x x Praise for E.S. Thomson 'The Blood exerts a fearsome grip from the off. Thomson is an expert and witty guide to the medical underbelly of Victorian London and her book oozes viscera and atmosphere on every page. Terrific stuff!' Graeme Macrae Burnet 'Meticulously researched and masterfully plotted, E.S. Thomson has written a complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable tale' Daily Express 'Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night' Evening Telegraph 'Jem Flockhart's London is vivid, pungent and perilous. The Blood takes you to places you will love to picture but be grateful you can't smell' Chris Brookmyre 'E. S. 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 'It's rare that a book is Gothic enough for me, but Beloved Poison is killing it. The blood, the bones, the crumbling hospital . . .' Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions 'Jem Flockhart is a marvel . . . This vivid journey into the dark side of the human soul is a thoroughly engrossing tale' Mary Paulson Ellis, author of The Other Mrs Walker 'Deliciously dark and vividly atmospheric, menace oozes from every page. Terrific for lovers of historical noir' Saga 'A first class piece of historical crime writing' Big Issue A marvellous, vivid book ... immaculately researched and breathtakingly dark' Janet Ellis, author of The Butcher's Hook

The Blood

"Set in a crumbling Victorian asylum where a gruesome murder is committed, this sequel to Beloved Poison explores the early science of brain study while giving chilling insight into an asylum's workings"--

Dark Asylum

Nightshade

'Immersive from the start and satisfying to the finish, a faultless tale from one of our best writers of historical crime fiction' JESS KIDD In the darkness, her face glimmered like polished bone, white, but with a bluish tinge. Her lips were dry and cracked. I saw them move; a black tongue pass over them as if she was trying to speak, but she made no sound. A plague is coming to London. Dreaded more than the Devil himself, cholera - the 'blue death' - spares no one. As fear grows across the city, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain are called to the bedside of a dead man, murdered, and with his throat torn out, in the back room of a brothel. When an innocent man is taken to Newgate, Jem and Will have until execution day to save him. The search for the identity of the corpse, and the killer, takes them to the gates of Blackwater Hall, home to the secretive, and corrupt Mortmain family. With the approach of autumn, no one is safe, for the fog brings with it an evil and poisonous sickness - the perfect shroud for murder. When family secrets are prised out into the open, people begin dying. But who, or what, is the cause? Searching for answers, Jem and Will are driven underground, to the passages and tunnels beneath the city's teeming streets. Here, their adversary proves to be more elusive, and more deadly, than ever. PRAISE FOR UNDER GROUND 'From the outset every image, every metaphor and simile reflects the central themes of corruption and disease, poverty and decadence.The plot is complex and substantial and the final denouement has a feeling of perfect inevitability' ALIS HAWKINS 'I LOVED it. Fantastic characters - I never guessed! So good ... Underground is brilliantly steeped in the lore of Victorian London, i couldn't take my eyes off it!' SARA SHERIDAN PRAISE FOR E.S.THOMSON 'Another gripping page-turner, add Nightshade to your reading list now.' Edinburgh Evening News 'Vivid, pungent and perilous' CHRIS BROOKMYRE on Beloved Poison 'Evocative...brilliant plotting' REBECCA GRIFFITHS on Beloved Poison 'A dark gripping atmospheric thriller' Dundee Courier on Nightshade 'Superb' Sunday Express 'Gothic. Gory. Glorious . . . E. S. 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 Gloaming 'Love evocative descriptions of Victorian London and brilliant plotting? Then grab a copy of this!' Rebecca Griffiths, author of The Primrose Path 'Complex, harrowing and highly enjoyable' Daily Express 'A marvellous, vivid book' Janet Ellis 'Jem Flockhart is a marvel . . . This vivid journey into the dark side of the human soul is a thoroughly engrossing tale' Mary Paulson Ellis, author of The Other Mrs Walker

Under Ground

A dark, page-turning thriller

Surgeons’ Hall

Set in a crumbling 1850s London infirmary, a richly atmospheric Victorian crime novel where murder is the price to be paid for secrets kept. 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 backstab. Ambition, jealousy, and loathing 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 room and the dissecting table to the notorious squalor of Newgate Prison 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 while the living are forced to make impossible choices. And murder is the price to be paid for the secrets to be kept.

E. S. Thomson

About

Books

Join the club