The time is August, 1918, the Gilded Age. The place is the home of the Cutter Family on the upper East Side in Manhattan. The reader is tossed into Allene Cutter’s engagement party and introduced to her once upon a time lifelong friends, Birdie Dreyer and Jasper Jones. They are no longer part of her social set but still a part of her heart and stand beside her at her party when a “tedious busybody and recent debutante “ is discovered dead at the bottom of the staircase. The game is afoot.

Birdie and Jasper are now living in the tenements, working at the only jobs they can find. Jasper is a janitor at Bellevue with hopes of gaining admittance to medical school. Birdie glows from the radium she paints on the dials of watches at the Ansonia Clock Company. People in their lives are dying and the trio is determined to discover who is doing this and why.

There is a larger picture of World War I and the draft which is calling up new recruits daily. If the war isn’t killing enough young men there is the Spanish Influenza which does not discriminate between the sexes and is decimating neighborhoods and populations by the thousands. It is a dire time and death is a mundane, daily occurrence.

Lydia Kang has woven an interesting tale around these three friends but I was never convinced of the nature of their relationship. Do they like each other? Hate each other? Need each other? There are peripheral characters who are well drawn and that added too my frustration with the portrayal of the primary players. So much of the story is infuriating but undoubtedly true to the timeline. The writing was better than good but convoluted - who was telling what when? Quick read, enjoyable read - but something is not quite right.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC

This is my first book by Lydia Kang and I am glad I read it. With well developed characters she wove together a mystery that kept me guessing right to the end.

Set in the Gilded Age there are current events taking place, the Spanish influenza outbreak and World War 1 has yet to end. Jasper, Birdie and Allene, once best friends but separated by events and society, are together again for Allene's engagement party when tragedy strikes. I found the first and second chapters a little hard to get into, once I passed that it was like the writing style had changed and I was totally immersed in the lives of these three young people.

As the bodies piled up and the mystery intensified the author made me care about them, each of them with unique backgrounds and hardships that they faced. It's a time period that I am just getting into, I enjoyed getting a glimpse of what life was like back then, which further enhanced the plight of these three characters. It wasn't hard to envision the distinct social classes, way of life and how those of high society can do as they please.

The ending was unexpected and one I didn't see coming. Definitely an author and book I recommend.

Thanks to TLC Tours for the invite to be part of this tour. I received an ebook copy (via Netgalley) for review purposes.

All the poisons!
This was interesting. I felt the book wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be- a mystery? A convoluted love story? A story of friendship?
I did not find the main trio of characters likeable- a trio once friends in childhood and reunited at an engagement party. There follow a string of deaths which unite the three in trying to solve the murders. I was scared at this point that it was going to turn into an Enid Blyton "three solve a murder", but the story takes a darker turn as we get to see parts of their lives, or where their motivations are revealed.
I loved the historical context of this novel- no wheat, no meat days and liberty gardens to save resources during the wartime effort, the outbreak of Spanish flu, the Bellevue and the beginnings of forensic medicine: not a period of American history I'm too familiar with.
An enjoyable read.
Many thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I'm rounding this book up from a 3.5 star rating to a 4 because it's definitely better than my standard 3 star rating but not quite a 4.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I felt like it was more than the routine mass market murder mystery and I definitely was kept in suspense and didn't guess the murderer at all. In fact, I probably suspected every other character but I'm not giving anything away!

Also, I liked how although the story is focused around these murders there is more going on within the lives of each of the characters. The reader is exposed to more information of their lives as well as what has happened in the past. It added to the story and kept it more entertaining to know more background information.

A positive aspect about this novel that I appreciated is that you could definitely tell that this book was written by someone in the medical profession with a scientific background. For me, that added an extra element to the story that I'm not used to because although it's fiction it appeared well researched and that the author knew what she was writing about.

I definitely would recommend this one to those who love mysteries, especially murder mysteries. I'm interested to know how many people guessed the murderer correctly as well as some of the major surprises that were revealed in the end.

**Thank you to the publisher for supplying me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

3.5 The Gilded Age, Manhattan 191, the night of Allene's engagement party, and things have taken a horrible turn. A young woman is found dead, at the bottom of the stairs, a woman many did not like. Was it an accident as it appears on murder? The police think accident, a decision aided by Allene's father, who wants only to avoid a scandal.

When they were younger Jasper, Birdie and Allene had been inseparable, great friends who shared in all kinds of adventures. Now at eighteen things are very different, their lives taking different paths. They will however, join together to solve this mystery, convinced there is poison involved in the death. Allene has a fierce love of chemistry, Birdie working at a radium dial painting factory (this is years before it was known just how dangers this was) and Jasper is working in the mortuary.

I enjoyed the tone of this novel, reminded me a little of a Nancy Drew story for grownups, this was both fun and serious at the same time. The horrible deaths from influenza also plays an important part as more bodies are found, each close to one of the three friends. Thought the author did a very good job combining real history with made up events. Secrets, well yes there are always secrets, are exposed, things you don't expect happen, and all in all I found this a very entertaining read.

ARC from Netgalley.

A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang, Great stuff, this book was amazing. Rich in history and rich in words. I really loved this book. Birdie, Allene, and Jasper are friends torn apart at a young age, and then reunited years later at Allene's engagement party to Andrew, a murder happens at the party. Then one after another murder and another the one clue that holds them all together is the one murdered was someone close to Birdie, Allene, and Jasper! I will not say more do not want to spoil, at the same time, you are learning the history of New York and the infuenza breakout! A best seller for sure

This is descriptively well written. I particularly enjoyed the sections on medical pathology, and the historical aspects appeared accurate (although I'm by no means an expert in this field). I liked the descriptions on upper class social life during this time, and the brief insight into the medical history of New York. I would have liked more of this, as the research behind it was obviously done with care and thought.

The overall plot is ok. It's your usual run of the mill murder mystery in a historical setting. While attending the engagement party of Allene, socialite Florence is found dead at the bottom of the stairs. Brushed off as an accident, it soon transpires that she has been murdered. As other incidents occur, three old friends - socialite Allene, future medical student Jasper and the beautiful yet fragile Birdie, must unite to identify who is behind the incident. The plot followed the usual pattern of investigation and slow unravelling of information that leads to the discovery of the culprit, with various (predictable) twists and turns along the way. Holly's past was predictably obvious right from the start for example. However, it was the ending that really destroyed this for me. The eventual discovery of the murderer and their motives were just so out of character and unrealistic, especially when compared to their behaviour throughout the novel before hand. It was far fetched, and ultimately I felt a little cheated out of a proper ending as it completely changed the tone of the whole novel.

There's also some kind of weird love triangle aspect interspersed throughout the novel. These three supposedly 'good friends' had no chemistry, and I didn't like Allene or Jasper. Jasper comes across as a know it all, with little to no respect or understanding for his friends. He's more interested in dissecting people than spending time with Birdie and Allene. Allene is completely naive, spoilt and self involved, to the point where several times throughout the novel I wanted to shake her. Her supposed love of Jasper felt really forced, and very unrealistic. The kiss that occurs between them half way through the novel fell flat to me and cringy - although not as uncomfortable as the kiss somehow shared between all three characters at the beginning. This whole aspect of the novel just felt weirdly off and I felt that, basically, all the main characters secretly hated each other rather than care about each other. There was no emotional connection at all. This was seemingly confirmed by the fact that both Jasper and Allene seemed to share a complete ignorance to Birdie's predicaments, which feels so out of character in someone who is suppose to be a genuine friend. In the end I didn't care about either of them.

Birdie was by far the most interesting character, however I felt a lot of her problems were skimmed over to make way for other matters in the books - which was a shame, and on conclusion didn't exactly help the novel explain its reasonings behind the killers motives. I would have liked to have read more about the 'radium girls' in the factory, and a social commentary on the lower classes would have been much more interesting than Allene and her 'uptown' house dramas.

Unfortunately at best I think this could be described as a beautiful mess.

The year is 1918 and the story begins in the luxurious Cutter mansion in New York. A trio of unlikely friends from childhood are reunited after a period of 4 years apart but, as they renew their acquaintances in their new adult world, a young woman dies. The friends then embark on an investigation that moves ever closer to home.

There was so much that was excellent about this novel. The sense of setting is perfect, moving from Allene's upper class society life to the poverty of those working alongside Birdie in the factory painting radium on clock dials. The medical details are all sound too, as can be expected given that Kang is a doctor. The plot is also good, with plenty of twists and red herrings that carried me through.

I was slightly less keen on the dynamic between the friends. I liked Allene as a character as she seemed to develop over the course of the novel. However, I found Jasper quite unsympathetic and Birdie a bit irritating in her goodness and piety. Just a personal response, but I couldn't really see how or why they would all be friends beyond the writer's need to draw in all their experiences to reveal the solution to the crimes.

Overall, I would recommend this book to lovers of historical crime. It is generally well-paced, cleverly plotted and engaging.

Lies come so easily whether you are rich or you are poor. Not even a penny for your thoughts. But, eventually, you may pay with your life..........

Manhattan seems to dazzle at the elegant Cutter mansion here in 1918. Allene Cutter and her fiance, Andrew Smythe Biddle, are celebrating their engagement in New York style. Long time friends Birdie Dreyer, Jasper Jones, and Ernie Fielding surround the young couple and champagne glasses are held high. But the laughter is quickly drowned out by a tumble and a crash as debutant, Florence Waxworth, is found dead at the bottom of the winding staircase. Her shattered glass will resemble the broken lives yet to come.

The ugly head of scandal can never rear up at the Cutter residence. A palmed hand containing a bit of green passes from Mr. Cutter to the officer in charge. His idea is to make all of this go away. Mr. Cutter never realizes that this is just the beginning of the body tally.

Lydia Kang presents a story lined with layers of forensic medicine, chemistry components, and the budding science of pathology. Jasper Jones works at Belleview as a custodian even though he has completed two years of college. It is his desire to attend medical school eventually. The family fortune has been lost and money is beyond tight. Dr. Gettler, chief forensics chemist, takes him under his wing and Jasper will have access to the morgue. Jasper's suspicion grows as bodies spin through with telltale signs of poisoning. Who and why?

Kang sets a panoramic stage with headline grabbing events of the time period. The Spanish flu surfaces on American shores with the young being taken at an outrageous rate. Young men must register for the draft as World War I overshadows lives. Death can tap you on the shoulder no matter the social status.

Surely the bloodhounds out there may figure this one out early on. There appears to be a few holes here and there out on the dance floor. Given that, this turns out to be a fun romp with jazzy dialogue and characters who have traded their dance cards several times over. Kang leans in and makes you change your dance partner just when you think you know. A clever read, indeed.

I received a copy of A Beautiful Poison through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to Lydia Kang for the opportunity.

Intriguing novel!
If you want to read a mystery set at a time when the U.S. was in turmoil, that will have you on the edge of your chair, this is it!!
An incredible journey taken with three main characters-Birdie, Alene, and Jasper.
They are intent on solving the murders of family members with only a few similarities in their deaths, and limited clues to figure out who is the killer.
You will never believe it!!
Well done!

A murder mystery set in New York a century ago which had me applying my current, if rudimentary, knowledge of modern chemistry and forensic science to predict and interpret the outcome of events.
Lydia Kang's main characters all evolve to have characteristics or personality flaws that make it difficult to be drawn to or have any real affinity with them. Yet I found the tightly woven plot a captivating read, wanting to know who the culprit was.

With the chill of October just around the corner, it's time for more murder mysteries. If you're looking for something that makes scientific sense while being set against a historical setting, Lydia Kang's fiction is a great place to start. A Beautiful Poison centers on Allene Cutter is a beautiful and vapid society girl about to be married. At her engagement party, the merriment is disrupted when another well-born girl falls to her death on the grand staircase. While her father pays off the local authorities to close the incident quickly, some suspect foul play.  Recently reunited with two of her working class former friends, Birdie and Jasper, Allene decides that  this murder mystery is just the thing to keep her out of the boredom she feels lost in. Allene soon learns that her former friends are living a rougher existence than she ever could have imagined behind the walls of her estate. What follows is a murder mystery set against the backdrop of gilded society, the Spanish Influenza, and the horror of the war draft. 

Author Lydia Kang uses her knowledge as a doctor to infuse the book with realistic chemistry, anatomical, and pandemic knowledge. It becomes very clear quite quickly that one of the characters is suffering from radium poisoning from her position in a watch factory where she works as a painter.  One character has cursory knowledge of chemistry and explosions. Another is able to assist with, and later conduct, autopsies.  

A Beautiful Poison does an excellent job of keeping readers guessing until the end. Kang has an ability to pull readers along, creating both a strong desire to see the characters succeed, but also with a few sentences to turn us against the same characters we were originally rooting for. Don't be surprised if characters you loathe in the beginning turn out to be some of your favorites, and those you adored frustrate you in the end. 

A Beautiful Poison is an excellent read as we ease into autumn.

We're not to judge books by their covers, but I admit the beautiful cover is what made me pick up this book. Unfortunately, that's all I liked about this book. The premise of a mystery novel set during 1918 intrigues me, but the characters were annoying and the writing was hard to follow. I couldn't finish it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for a review copy of A Beautiful Poison, a tale of society murder in 1918 New York.

Allene Cutter is celebrating her engagement at a party in her home when one of the guests, Florence Waxworth, falls down the stairs and dies. A tragic accident until Allene and her friends, Jasper Jones and Birdie Dreyer, smell bitter almonds, the sign of cyanide poisoning. Nothing will do for Allene except they investigate.

I enjoyed A Beautiful Poison. I like the mystery of who the perpetrator is as I had various suspects over the course of the novel, at Ms Kang suggestion, and still didn't get it right. I'm impressed by her skill in obfuscation. The plot is linear, easy to follow and has a few twists along the way. It is slow to start and initially a bit clichéd but I am glad I stuck with it as it soon develops from this unpromising start into an interesting read.

I found the historical detail fascinating from the fear of the draft and the restrictions of war to the devastating effects of Spanish influenza. Allene is not a particularly likeable character but she is very well drawn and, I think, very typical of her era and upbringing. As a child of wealthy parents she is careless of others like trying to persuade Birdy to take time off work, not understanding that Birdy needs the wages to survive or depending on her maid Lucy for support but not knowing anything about Lucy or her family. Toffs really are careless in this novel. Even her determination to investigate Florence's death is not selfless it is for her own enjoyment.

The novel is told in the third person from the viewpoints of Allene, Jasper and Birdie. I normally dislike this kind of scattergun approach to the narrative but it works really well here as Jasper and Birdy provide their own perspective on Allene and the contrast between their lives and hers is stark. It gives an added realism to the novel and some it would break your heart.

A Beautiful Poison is a good mixture of crime, social commentary and interaction between the characters and I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.

Beautifully written historical fiction, yet slightly confusing at times.

Set in Manhattan in 1918, several American soldiers have just returned from World War I and brought home the Spanish influenza with them. As the disease begins its widespread outbreak, Allene recruits her two estranged childhood friends Birdie and Jasper to try and find a cure. But as the disease begins to affect family and friends, it becomes apparent that this may not be stopped until several more have met their fate.

This was a very fast read that was mostly enjoyable. I always enjoy historical fiction and making it a medical thriller added some suspense. But there were times that the storyline was a little bit confusing. There were lots of twist and turns that keep the pages moving, but sometimes didn’t make a lot of sense, especially when I went back to reread how the twist had happened. Even so, the writing is very well done and the characters finally became more likable the closer you get to the end of the book. If you are up for something a little different or enjoy the time period that the book is set in, give it a try.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

At first, it seems like this story is about the party. An engagement party, in New York during the Gilded Age, among the upper crust. A young socialite dies, and everyone wants to sweep her death under the expensive carpet and chalk it all up to an accident. Even if, or perhaps especially because, it isn’t.

But once the focus moves outward, from the singular death to its effects on three young people attending that party, the action shifts into high gear. Suddenly, it’s not about the party, or at least not just the party, any longer.

As we watch our young protagonists (they are all 18) grow and change in the wake of this event, and in the process of their investigation into it, it seems to be about everything but the party. We become involved with them, their worlds, which were once the same but are now divergent, and the mystery expands.

Until it contracts, and we’re back, surprisingly, to that party, only nothing was quite as it seemed.

A Beautiful Poison is a murder mystery, and, it is also a coming of age story. And it’s a story about friendship. And love. Definitely about love.

All three of the protagonists are 18. And although all of them either are about to or already have embarked upon their adult lives, their relative youth and inexperience definitely factor into the story.

At first, is seems like Allene’s story. And also at first, Allene’s story seems like that of a typical poor-little-rich-girl, a bird in a gilded cage that yearns to fly free, even though her sheltered upbringing means that she has no clue what that freedom might cost.

Her friends are all too aware of the cost. Both Jasper and Birdie used to be members of Allene’s charmed inner circle, until tragedy shoved them out and away. And Allene, firmly under her parents’ thumbs, as rich girls were a century ago, let it happen.

Jasper’s parents committed suicide – after his father lost all their money. In the intervening four years, Jasper has lived with his alcoholic, agoraphobic uncle, supported them both, and put himself through college as a janitor at Bellevue Hospital, borrowing textbooks over the weekend in the hopes of someday going to medical school.

Birdie has fallen even lower, as women had many fewer financial opportunities. She and her mother were upper-caste servants in Allene’s household, serving as lady’s maids and dressers to Allene and her own mother. Until Birdie’s mother was suddenly and inexplicably turned out of the house without a reference, forced to take Birdie with her. Hazel is now a prostitute, while Birdie keeps the little family afloat, a family that includes her 4-year-old sister, by being one of the dial-painters in the clock factory.

Birdie knows that her time is running out, and swiftly. She knows she’s dying, although she doesn’t know why. Birdie sees Allene’s invitation to the engagement party as her last chance to get back into Allene’s inner circle, in the hopes of saving her little sister from their mother’s fate. Allene just sees it as an adventure, and a chance to spend time with her besties before she is immured in marriage to a wealthy man who will undoubtedly grow up to be just like her father. Her cage door will lock forever, and this is her last chance to fly free.

As Allene, Jasper and Birdie investigate the original shocking death, more bodies pile up. People around them are dying, and in each instance, they find a note left behind, with only two words on it, “You’re welcome”. But who is welcome for what?

Time is running out, but so are the potential victims. Especially when the influenza epidemic sweeps through New York and nearly takes them all with it – before their amateur investigation is complete.

Escape Rating B+: This story is a circle. It starts with the party, and it ends with the party. But at the end, everyone’s perspective on those events has changed. And their world is a much different place than it was at the beginning.

Once the story moves outward, away from its initial focus on Allene to encompass all three protagonists, it moves at the same cracking pace as the progress of Birdie’s cancer, which is rapid indeed.

Birdie is one of the “radium girls” who painted clock faces with bits of radium that glowed in the dark. As did they before they died. There are books about real-life cases just like Birdie’s, including this year’s The Radium Girls. Those cases led to the first workplace regulatory legislation. It would have been much tidier in some ways for the author to have included the solution to Birdie’s death as part of the story, but radium wasn’t isolated as the cause until well after her death. Instead, her predicament becomes one of the many red-herrings in the mystery.

Upon finishing the story, it felt like the coming of age aspect was more important than it seemed at first, just as all the characters turned out to be much deeper than they seemed, especially Allene, who was rather shallow and self-absorbed at her engagement party. Allene and Jasper grow up during the course of the story, and they discover who they are and what they are to each other.

One of the things that they discover, surprising for both them and the reader, is that as much as this story is about love, it is not a love story. Allene and Jasper do not end up with each other, at least not as anything more than friends. Whether that is because their roads have diverged too far, or whether it’s because they are better as “family” than lovers is up to the reader to decide. But it felt right.

But the story is still about love, and what we will do for love. No matter what the cost, there are times and circumstances where no price is too high.

Wow! A Beautiful Poison runs in so many different frantic directions, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat the whole time and I loved every minute of it!

I have historically been let down by historical mystery type books in the past, so I tread carefully when choosing to read one. They have tended to move rather slowly and force all the resolution within the last few pages and feel rushed. Oftentimes I find the reveal to be rather expected. I can tell you that in A Beautiful Poison you start out right at the heart of the first murder and it upholds that pace clean through to the very end. While the eventual reveal is brought about toward the end (as it should) the plot carries through to the end with tying up the loose ends with how that reveal affects the main characters. At no point did it feel slow or plodding; there actually isn’t a good point in this book to put it down, so plan to stay up reading it all night! I spent the better part of 2 days reading it and was ready to pick it back up each time I was forced to put it down and stayed up much later than I should have reading it.

In some ways, A Beautiful Poison reminds me of a book I read and loved earlier this year from the genre: A Deadly Affection by Cuyler Overholt. In that book a thread of the story is about trying to figure out a medical condition using only the techniques of that time period, and that is much the same here. Our sleuths spend much time in the medical examiners office (good thing one of them works there or it might get weird!) trying to follow the clues of the deceased to figure out if there was foul play or natural causes in their deaths and what the manner of death was. This takes place in 1918 so the medical knowledge was less than it is now and it was fascinating seeing how they went about procedures and such. Additionally, there was the ever present threat of the Spanish Flu affecting those fighting overseas and eventually in the city of New York that was quite dangerous seeing how that affected their quest. Every step of the way felt true to the time period for me; I was never pulled out of the story feeling that a modern method was being included. The author is a physician also, so I would tend to believe that she knows her medical history!

This novel really covers many areas: medical and science understanding of the time, the affects of WWI on the United States and how the looming threat of another draft affected families, and the vast gulf between those living the gilded life and those struggling to survive. This is brilliantly shown through the three main characters: Jasper, Allene, and Birdie. All three used to move in the circle of society, however Allene is the only one that remains there now because of a series of events that happened to Jasper and Birdie’s families – which are revealed over time. As these three friends are reunited and Jasper and Birdie become involved in Allene’s life again, the differences between them are vividly illustrated. Jasper and Birdie actually have to work for a living and you see much of them at their jobs!! How often does that actually happen in novels? I enjoyed getting into the factory and medical lab with them.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, there were two parts that did give me pause: the beginning and the end! The first chapter or two felt like I was being thrown into the middle of something that I just didn’t understand, which is essentially the truth. The author chooses to immediately engross the reader in the mystery and introduce us more to the main characters over time. It is just a style different than that which I am used to, and while it still was effective, I was confused for awhile. My issue with the ending is almost insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I wasn’t happy with the outcome of the minor romance plot point. For me, it was like how things ended up in the Harry Potter series, seemingly out of left field. While that certainly didn’t change the outcome of the story, because it was just character development, I was not happy with that.