I really enjoyed this one and I LOVE the cover. I learned a lot from the history lessons woven throughout and there were plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing.

This book sounded very promising. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it through the whole thing. I ended up reading the first half and then skipping the second half to just read the last couple of chapters. It was fairly predictable, but I think this was not the right time to be reading about a pandemic sweeping the city and the cold, callousness that the characters displayed when talking about the dead. I totally understand that they were scientists first and foremost, but I just couldn’t stomach it given the current events. The chemistry and science were really fascinating, but it felt more like the characters were placeholders built around whatever their scientific pursuit is first and foremost and I couldn’t connect with them very well.

I really appreciate how smart the characters are. But they’re all also not very good people. Allene is smart and wants to be a chemist. She reads a ton, but is definitely selfish and narrow-minded, she’s been spoiled her whole life and I think she ends up having a bit of a redeeming character arc but I couldn’t make myself go through it. Birdie is her childhood best friend, who was actually the daughter of her mother’s lady-companion and so presumably being groomed to also be the lady-companion of Allene? Like a lady-maid? I forget what the term is, but the person who is one step up from a maid but not quite on the same social standing? Anyway, they got kicked out and have been living in poverty. (She is also a Radium Girl, painting clock faces with glowing radium which is one of the most interesting parts of her character). Jasper, their other friend, wants to be a doctor and is working his way through school, but he seems like kind of a jerk and also somehow can’t make up his mind about whether he wants to get revenge on or be with the other girls.

I also almost DNFed within the first couple of pages but kept reading once I thought there might some kind of poly-triangle between the three main characters, 2 of them girls. And maybe there could have been? There were definitely a few instances that I thought there could have been something between the two girls, but then it turned into both of them and the one dude? kinda disappointing.

I love read stories that take place during a period of history I personally didn't get to experience. I'm not normally a mystery reader, but I really enjoyed this book!

*I received this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Semi-spoilers in the last paragraph...

Set in 1918, A beautiful Poison tells the story of three childhood friends, who come together to celebrate the union of one and end up being enraptured into the murder mystery of the decade. Even though Kang, used various point of views, each chapter was a cohesive continuation of the others. We are lucky to see this mystery unfurl from the eyes of Allene, Jasper and Birdie. As they try to mend broken alliances and make a new life for themselves in society, it seems as if an angel of mercy is on their side. However, as the bodies start mounting from non-influenza related deaths, they start to realize that angel of mercy is actually the angel of death. With emotions running high, the trio are surprised to discover that there is a traitor in their mist and race against the clock to prevent one of them from being next.

This is my first novel from Lydia Kang, and I am happy to say it will not be the last. She managed to weave a story two parts non-fiction and one part fiction so masterfully that one would second guess if the entire story was non in fact based off of a real event. Her choice of women characters are more than the average docile creatures of the 1900s. Even the most seemingly docile has hidden ambition and cunningness that not even Sherlock Holmes himself would have deduce the true culprit.

Wealthy socialite Allene is thrilled to see her childhood best friends again. After Birdie and her mother were kicked out of the house and Jasper’s parents killed themselves, leaving their children penniless, Allene’s father forbade her from seeing them. But he relented when she asked to invite them to her engagement party celebrating her impending marriage.

The three friends are reminiscing in Allene’s bedroom when one of the guests, Florence, falls down the stairs and dies. A mean-spirited girl who never hid her jealousy of the three friends, Florence’s death is sad but not terribly so. But when Jasper smells almonds, he’s sure Florence was poisoned.

While Allene wasn’t fond of Florence, she realizes this is a way to keep Birdie and Jasper in her life and avoid dealing with her upcoming marriage. Jasper uses his connections at the morgue to investigate the cause of death even though the police have closed the case. When someone close to Birdie is the next victim, it becomes personal to her too.

A Beautiful Poison is set in 1918, so the friends also have to contend with both the Spanish Influenza and the lowering of the draft age for the Great War, which means Jasper is eligible. Birdie works countless hours at a factory, painting radium onto clocks, and is hiding the fact that she is ill from her friends. Allene’s affinity for chemistry is seen as a flight of fancy and not taken seriously by her father. The class differences between Allene and her friends are front and center, but she doesn’t care in the least.

As more people close to the friends continue to die, each accompanied by a mysterious note, the mystery deepens, especially since the deaths end up making their lives easier in some way.

There was quite a bit I enjoyed about A Beautiful Poison. The characters all grow in some way, the setting is vibrant and well drawn, and the mystery isn’t solved until the very end, with lots of red herrings along the way.

This book is set in post-jazz age New York with Spanish flu running rampant and the draft impending. We follow a group of almost twenty something socialite friends as their family and friends start to die in unusual or suspicious ways. They start to investigate the deaths but that brings more tragedy, unfurling secrets and affairs. I partly listened to this book via Kindle Unlimited and partly via the Netgalley ARC I was sent. I wasn't a massive fan of the narrator, the book was very slow and tedious at times and overall, it felt like a bit of a slog to get through but the mystery was definitely intriguing.

While there are many great elements to this story, from the chemistry to the historical complexities of radium poisoning, this novel didn't work for me. I read the entire thing hoping that it would get better, but I found the ending to be not worthwhile.

America is at war and Spanish Influenza terrorises the city, but the lives of Allene, Jasper and Birdy are changed when a young woman dies at Allene's engagement party. Florence's death appears to be an accident, but the trio think she has been murdered.
Then more people connected to Allene, Jasper and Birdy start to die in strange circumstances.
Who is the murderer?
Will Allene, Jasper and Birdy be next?

I was REALLY looking forward to reading A Beautiful Poison - a historical murder mystery novel with a gorgeous cover? Yes please! But I am so disappointed!
Where to begin...
From the very start I found parts of the writing stilted and as they didn't flow easily it made it hard to get into the story.
I didn't like any of the main characters. Some of their reactions and some of the things they said were odd. I also didn't think that any of them were particularly nice, but of course them not being perfect does make them realistic characters. Lucy and Ernie were likeable and I felt sorry for them.
The plot was okay but I guessed something at the beginning that ended up being right.
I lost interest a few times and nearly DNF'd at one point.
I liked that Allene was really into chemistry (as a former chemistry university student it was interesting to see it in a book).

Overall this was an okay but disappointing read.

1918 was a difficult time in United States history. There was a war going on - The Great War - and more men were needed for the fight. With each draft calling on younger and younger boys to "enlist", even eighteen year olds were in danger of being called to duty. Then there was the highly contagious Spanish Influenza which was killing people faster than the war. It seemed the young were more susceptible to its deadliness than the elderly. Hospitals couldn't keep up with the demand and wards were filled to capacity with not enough personnel to properly care for their patients. Medicine also left much to be desired as antibiotics, such as penicillin, would not be discovered until 1928, readily available in 1942. Yet science wasn't totally ignorant. Autopsies were useful in diagnosing cause of death with forensic science an up and coming field. All this and more is explored in A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang.

Allene Cutter, while celebrating her engagement to Andrew Smythe Biddle with a houseful of guests, is disconcerted when socialite Florence Waxworth collapses, falls down the stairs hitting her head and ends up in a literal "dead" heap. While everyone thinks it's an accident caused by too much alcohol, Allene and her friends suspect arsenic as the cause. The distinctive smell of burnt almonds tips them off, especially since Jasper's own parents committed suicide using that same substance. Jasper Jones works as a janitor at Bellevue Hospital and wants to check out the deceased "friend" to test their hypothesis. Through a convoluted series of events, the medical-wanna-be ends up an assistant to Forensics Chemist, Dr Gettler, in the hospital's morgue. Unfortunately, since the police have determined Florence's death accidental, he must secretly perform his own autopsy to confirm his suspicions.

Allene, from society's upper crust, secretly has feelings for her former friend Jasper as well as for her childhood companion Birdie Dreyer, even though they have lost touch these last four years. Now that marriage looms, Allene wants to reconnect while she still can be somewhat independent. Her old friends aren't sure they want to resume relations after being previously cut out of her life, yet their previous closeness is easily restored as they try to discover who is sending the little notes discovered near each of the increasing number of victims - all people who are known to them. Together they are determined to solve the mystery and stop the madness.

Each has their own obstacles to overcome. Birdie, despite her general feeling of malaise, maintains her focus on her younger sister Holly. Allene must deal with her upcoming marriage to Andrew who expresses his expectations for her behaviors which do not include the chemistry experiments she adores. He won't even allow her to carry an electric lighter in her pocket, as this device is inappropriate for women. Jasper strives to make enough money to support himself and his sickly, alcoholic uncle plus save a little for medical school tuition.

There are several potential perpetrators of the crimes, but there are also a lot of misdirections, until the shocking truth is finally revealed. In between, the three eighteen year olds deal with their lot in life, often aggravated by the adults who don't seem to understand (or care about) their needs and desires. The restrictions on females during the early 1900's, before women were even allowed to vote, becomes a secondary focus as Allene and Birdie push the limits of their gender, determined to come up with solutions. While not everyone gets a happily ever after, the conclusion resolves most of the issues, with the bad guys getting their just desserts.

Each of the characters is selfishly wrapped up in themselves which make them less than likable, although they did, on occasion, have their honorable moments. The one nice guy, Ernie Fielding, was despised by everyone. There was also too much going on in the plot and while historically accurate, the various secondary crisis were overplayed when combined with the murders. I would have liked a simpler, cleaner plot without so many side issues.

Lydia Kang, a medical doctor, also coauthored Quackery, a book I recently read, with details about the radiation poisoning mentioned in this book. The use of radium in Clock Factories during this time period is also the subject of The Radium Girls by Kate Moore (another nonfiction book I am currently reading). The reviews for these books can be found on my blog, Gotta Read.

Three and a half stars and a thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing this ARC In exchange for an honest review.

This book starts off slowly and gradually picks up speed as two childhood friends join forces to find out how the third in their trio died. As a fan of Flavia de Luce, I appreciated all the science used to solve the mystery.

Loved the backdrop in this book. World War I (with the reader knowing it’s nearing its end… but not the characters). The dreadful influenza reaching American shores and starting a war all of its own. Socialites in their own little world, feeling the bigger world as an intrusion that may or may touch them (whether draft or flu). Murders in those ‘higher spheres’, with the reminder that with a little money, nobody will try and look further. The early times of another type of poisoning, too, for the girls who painted clock dials with magic glowing in the dark (if you haven’t done so yet, read The Radium Girls, it’s really interesting).

I liked the beginning well enough: an engagement party, one of the guests falling to her death on the stair, and it turns out the fall isn’t what killed her—poison did. This murder, more than the party itself, reunites the three main characters, who got separated four years prior to these events, due to various reasons, but mostly selfish ones, such as falling out of favour (God forbids your daughter keeps associating with the child of people who committed suicide, right, this is so vulgar and out of taste); and considering the latter, there’s no wonder this relationship is tainted, poisoned, from the start, simmering with both happiness at having friends back yet also with resentment and bitter memories. Which in turn made Allene, Birdie and Jasper unreliable narrators to the power of ten, because in a mystery with murders aplenty, they were part of the pool of potential culprits just as much as other people at the engagement party.

There was a lot of unhealthy tension in this book, because of the characters’ past, and because of other secrets that got revealed later. Although in a way, I liked it, I wasn’t too keen on how it all unfurled; the characters weren’t very likeable, but for me that wasn’t even due to their personalities (I can enjoy a ‘non-likeable’ character), more to the fact they were somewhat inconsistent with what was told of them at first. For instance, Allene is presented as loving chemistry, but this didn’t play as much of a part as I expected (mostly she still remained the socialite totally oblivious to the people around her, unless what affected those people affected her as well). Perhaps Birdie was, all in all, the most consistent of all. I’m not sure where the line was, that line that would’ve made me like these characters more; it just didn’t click with me here.

The narrative, I think, was also poised between too little and too much. Part of me wanted more of the setting (New York, descriptions, parties, how the flu claimed people—horrifying symptoms, and so many deaths), yet at the same time, the setting plus the murders didn’t mesh fully, and the plot felt too convoluted when nearing the end. And, of course, what’s happening to Birdie—as the author mentioned at the end (and I agree), historical accuracy demanded there could be no closure on that specific point, but this means that, well, either you already know about that bit of history, or you don’t, and it makes no sense. Tricky.

Conclusion: It was an OK read for me: mildly entertaining in general, but not a gripping mystery. Here I preferred the setting to the characters.

Allene, Jasper and Birdie. Three young people, on the brink of a draft, a murder and revenge.

The book is slow, almost too slow for me. I almost put it down a couple of times, but by the end the payoff was very satisfactory. It's one of those books that shuffles along, trying to figure out everyone motive and who could it be, but in the end, the big reveal had nothing to do with how they died but why they died.

Kang's world of WWI era sparkles and glittery age is mesmerizing, stepping into Allene's expensive shoes. The grey area really centers around Jasper, working class and now out of favor with the rich and Birdie, swimming in scandal and suddenly thrust back into her best friend and her feared enemy's home.

The best part about the book was the time period. I found myself fully immersed in Kang's world, especially as I already knew about the Radium Girls. I really liked how the historical accuracy of events played so much into the plot of the story, adding red herrings here and there. (The influenza is especially horrific and I will be reading more on that later on.) The other thing I liked so much about the story is how Kang doesn't shy away from adult themes and hurtful situations. There's abuse in many forms, sexual and mental, as well as scandal, prostitution. It's not added in lightly or superfluous, rather it is perfectly pitched into the story to add great levity and enhance the story and the protagonists' world.

The book is well thought out, but because the pacing was slow, I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it. This is a good one for people who like a rich setting and a slow burn of a plot. It's not for everyone, but I found it to be very rewarding.

1918 New York and the city is struggling with the spread of the Spanish Influenza epidemic as well as WWI.
3 friends Birdie, Alene and Jasper are reunited at an engagement party only the party doesn't end how they expected when someone drops dead from poisoning.
This is a story about the friendship as well as a murder mystery, wonderfully full of twists and turns.
Just when you think you have it solved it changes. There are also many intriguing subplots that make you question if you have worked it out or not!
The details of Spanish flu which was a devastating, worldwide epidemic that killed .millions of people are really well written and you can tell that a lot of research has been put into this book. I also found it to be cleverly educational, I learned things about chemistry, clocks, poison, as well as the influenza.
I managed to plough through the book in just one sitting as it is so well written the pages soon fly by but I only guessed one of the "puzzles" and was totally surprised at the end, the twist was impossible to guess!
Wonderful book and i can't wait to read more from Lydia Kang

Allene Cutter fought hard for her childhood friends Jasper and Birdie to come to her engagement party. Her father doesn't think they are acceptable company for a young woman about to be married into one of New York's wealthiest families. When a woman at the party drops dead, the three friends are pulled into a mystery. Are the people dying all around them victims of the Spanish influenza or is something more sinister at work?

Lydia Kang transports readers into 1918 New York City, from the most opulent mansions to the clock factory where Birdie spends hours each day carefully painting dials. The mystery is a slow burn as our intrepid trio of friends try to decode the messages left with each body, armed with Allene's knowledge of chemistry and Jasper's access to the local morgue. This is one of those books that can easily send you down a bookish rabbit hole. It is easy to read about Jasper working in the morgue or Birdie painting clock faces with radium and jump right into a book like Bellevue or The Radium Girls.

The author makes a bold choice, as none of the main characters is particularly likable. As eighteen year olds, they make selfish and bad decisions often. In certain books, you can tell the good guys from the bad guys. In A Beautiful Poison, almost anyone could be guilty because they all do terrible things to the people in their lives. Each time you think you might know who is behind the mysterious deaths, new information changes everything. I didn't see the ending coming at all. If you love a good mystery and a trip 100 years into the past, this is a great read.

A Beautiful Poison
By Lydia Kang
Lake Union Publishing August 2017
350 pages
Read via Netgalley

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD! *heart eyes* It ticked all the boxes of everything I crave in an excellent historical murder mystery!

I couldn't get into this book, sadly. I think it and I are just not a great fit for each other.

With pre-prohibition New York as a backdrop, this murder mystery is layered with luscious settings and unsavoury characters who are perfectly flawed and despairingly human in their sense of want and rationalisation.

Between history and chemistry lessons, Kang effortlessly weaves a story of betrayal and guilt through the varied points of view of the three main characters. Part Sherlock, part Agatha Christie, and part tragic romance, A Beautiful Poison hits all the right notes, leaving the reader satisfied, but with a melancholy weight that accompanies the tragedy at the end.

From the crystal chandeliers of Upper Manhattan to the crowded and pungent tenements in Brooklyn, Ms. Kang's mystery feeds off the desperation of its characters, pulling the reader in further until you have no choice but to gasp at the final reveal.

An excellent read for those who enjoy a richly imagined world with textured writing and characters who slip under your skin like a tiny splinter—whether you like it or not.

https://bethanymyers.blogspot.ca/

I didn't get too far into this before I realized that the underdeveloped characters and the flimsy murder plot were not going to work for me. I prefer my historical fiction with more depth, but I think many readers will enjoy this surprising mystery.

At the end, I had kind of OK feelings about the book. I did like the historical setting. I also enjoyed the science parts of the book. The solution to the mystery was also a big surprise to me. However, I felt like the first half of the book really dragged for me. I wasn't immediately sucked in. It may have been the multiple perspectives. They just didn't flow well for me. I wasn't in love with any of the characters and couldn't find one to really like. Maybe Birdie... I felt most badly for her being one of the "Radium Girls". Her story was the most tragic. -Kari

Set in the early years of the twentieth century, just prior to prohibition. A woman trips on the carpet at a society event, falls down the steps and breaks her neck. A tragic accident? Or something else?

A group of friends decide to investigate, and, it's truly amazing what they uncover.

NG: I read this EARC courtesy of Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley; pub date 08/01/17