Once again I didn't realise this was the second book when I requested it. Still, I enjoyed it and didn't feel like I missed anything apart from getting to know the main characters a little more.

In 1851, in Angel Meadow Asylum, Dr. Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead in a very gruesome state. Jem Flockhart, gentleman apothecary ends up investigating the murder with his friend Will.

The plot is engaging and the mystery is both gruesome and addictive. The scientific and medical details of this time period are on point which complements the horrific reality of the life inside the asylum. I had to stop a few times because the pure horror, pain and misery described in the book just to me at times. Still, I went right back in. That's how good E.S. Thomson has done their job. The descriptions of the slums of London just pulled me right into the story and walking with Jem and Will into this dark side of the English capital.

The characters are very well developed and described. Jem is like the shadow of Sherlock Holmes with his powers of deduction but he has a different vibe all together. I loved seeing his interactions with Will.

I'm glad this is going to be a series!

"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.

1851, Angel Meadow Asylum. Dr. Rutherford, principal physician to the insane, is found dead, his head bashed in, his ears cut off, his lips and eyes stitched closed. The police direct their attention towards Angel Meadow's inmates, but to Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain the crime is an act of calculated retribution, rather than of madness.

To discover the truth Jem and Will must pursue the story through the darkest corners of the city―from the depths of a notorious rookery, to the sordid rooms of London's brothels, the gallows, the graveyard, the convict fleet and then back to the asylum. In a world where guilt and innocence, crime and atonement, madness and reason, are bounded by hypocrisy, ambition and betrayal, Jem and Will soon find themselves caught up in a web of dark secrets and hidden identities."

Fog outside, a good Gothic read about an asylum? Yes please!

Another good installment in this unique series. Jem Flockhart, apothecary in the dark, seedy side of London, has left St. Saviours and become the apothecary to Angel Meadow Insane Asylum. Realistic depictions of this hulking horror and its inhabitants made my skin crawl, and the author does a fine job of characterization. A series of murders takes place in the asylum, and Jem needs to use all of his deductive powers to unmask the killer before they strike again. The plot has more than one red herring until it finally unravels with Jem's careful detection.

This book is certainly a twisting-keep-you-guessing suspense story. The story is told in alternating parts from the current on-going story and from the past of an unknown girl. Just when you think you've got everything figured out, everything gets turned upside-down... The last few chapters were pretty exciting and well-paced.
I did find this a little more gory than I would typically choose - it is a historical murder mystery, but there were some fairly detailed descriptions of dead bodies and autopsies. Not enough to make me want to put it down, but I definitely skimmed some parts.
My major complaints are that the book did get a little overly descriptive on monotonous things and lagged in a few places, and the last few pages really fell flat for me. I got to the last sentence and thought I was missing pages. I feel like it should have ended just a tad earlier.
Content-wise, the main character is a woman, living as a man, raised to be such by her father so that she could take over the family business and live her own life without condemnation from society. But this seems to have almost made her a lesbian by default? It was kind of strange. I did not read the first book in the series and felt kind of in the dark about the relationship between Flockhart and Quartermain. I think he knew she was actually a woman, but the two acted strangely sometimes despite trying to uphold Flockhart's deception. There were times when Quartermain would take her by the hand or arm, which I thought strange if he thought she was a man, but similarly odd if they were both trying to hold up the illusion of her being a man... I thought the story was going to deal with some tension in their relationship, but then you find out from references to the first book that Flockhart was formerly in love with a woman. There is a somewhat detailed lesbian sex scene that could have been left out. It seemed entirely gratuitous by the end of the book.
I give it four stars for the creativity of the murder mystery plot, but if I were rating it on the writing in general, I'd probably go more of a three? Parts of the story were much better than others - my enjoyment of the book was not consistent throughout.

When I first saw the cover of this book, it looked very intriguing to me, and the description drew me in. The problem is that I just could not get into it. I read the majority of the book on a cross-country flight, where I didn't have anything else to do or distract me, but I still had a tough time focusing on the story and getting through it. I am not sure if it is because it is the second book in the series and I had not read the first, but it seemed like I was missing some things.

The main character, Jem, is a woman who has been raised as a man since her twin brother's death at birth. Why did her father decide to raise her in this manner, and how does she feel about it? I am not sure because the author doesn't really go into that. There seemed to be a lot of minor characters, and I had a little difficulty keeping them all straight. While there was some mystery in who was behind the grisly murders, it didn't seem particularly suspenseful to me.

I am rating this a 3 because I believe it was a well-written book, just not particularly my cup of tea.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book which means I will not be able to review it. I truly appreciate the opportunity and apologize for the inconvenience the lack of review may cause you.

3.5 stars. There's a lot I enjoyed about "Dark Asylum": the unconventional protagonist, the settings both macro (early Victorian London) and micro (an apothecary, a home for the mentally ill), the writing, the fact that I didn't figure out the mystery right away. But as is often the case with this genre, the coincidences seemed to pile up too fast and furiously, and the relationship between the two main characters was a bit unclear to me. We know that Jem is a woman who has been living as a man, but does Will, her roommate? And I'd have liked more about the mechanics of living that way—perhaps in lieu of what seemed to be an incongruous and unlikely sexual encounter (I'm not at all against sex in books, but this one just seemed flung in here for no good reason).

A great follow up to Beloved Poison. I love the mood of these books.

4 stars ~~ Thank you to NetGalley and Pegasus Books, Ltd. for a chance to read and review this ARC. Publication is scheduled for November 7, 2017.

A great "Who-Dun-It" that could read like a stand alone novel, however is the second book of the Jem Flockhart series.

In the dirty and difficult times of London, 1851, at the Angel Meadow Asylum for the criminally insane, we once again find Jem Flockhart, apothecary and friend Will Quartermain, architect embroiled in a murder. Dr Rutherford, the famous phrenologist, is murdered. In a time when people did not bathe for weeks and clothes were not changed for months at a time, new discoveries were steadily coming to the forefront. Photography was new, anesthetic was becoming popular, cleanliness, mental illness, sanitation and medicine were on the rise. Amongst the slums, the convict ship, the old St Saviour, the cemetery, the brothels and Jem's apothecary shop we traipse through the muck and mire of the old Victorian environment looking for the killer - a person who we least suspect - but who is unveiled by a skull, a ledger and a photo.

E.S. Thomson has done a wonderful job of putting the reader into the gritty slums of London. A time of flea and lice infestations along the smog and grim encrusted back alleys. This novel is broken up between two stories that finally meld together. Once the secondary story fully comes to fruition, it helps to reveal the killer. Great use of plot formation. The characters are very vividly written, as is the atmosphere of the city. You can smell the smells and visualize the people. It is good to know that Thomson is working on the next book of this series.

Did not know this was book 2 when I requested it, having not read book one there were certain details that didn't make sense to me, and I had some questions. However it was a still a great enough story that I was able to read it as a "stand alone' of sorts and not feel completely left out.. I'll be reading book 1 soon and then re-reading this, but this is a great series.

Death could come in the most macabre and unexpected way.

And what could be a fate worst than death within the walls of Angel Meadow Asylum? Let it be known that nary an angel treads through these dark and dank hallways.

The chilled autumn London air of September 1852 finds Jem Flockhart, apothecary of the former St. Saviour's, stirring combinations of fine herbs in order to create quality remedies. His assistant, Gabriel Locke, serves as his apprentice as well. Jem has befriended Will Quatermain, a draughtsman, who specializes in the designs of drains and sewers along London's streets. The three of them will become all too familiar with the comings and goings within the asylum as the story unfolds.

When one of the asylum's doctors is found dead with callipers sticking out of his head and his eyes stitched shut, Jem and Will are shocked beyond words. Who had access to the doctor's room and why would anyone murder this man? Needless to say, all are under suspicion from the unstable inmates to the medical staff itself.

E.S. Thomson presents the second book in the Jem Flockhart series. (Beloved Poison is Book One.) This one can be read as a standalone. Be prepared for a dark tale encased in graphic details of asylum life, autopsies, and ill-treatment of women during this time period. "The womb, gentlemen, need I say more?"

Thomson creates a very atmospheric view into the known medical treatments of this era. Physicians implemented phrenology with the study of the contours of one's head for medical purposes. Chlorofoam was newly introduced for sedation and hashish was doled out as a controversial treatment for the mad. Asylum inmates seemed to be at the mercy of sometimes undocumented experimentation.

Jem is the lead voice of the storyline with reflections interspersed from a mysterious female character as well. We will come to know more about the elusive Jem. There are quite a few threads weaving their way throughout this one that keep the reader engaged and intrigued. Most certainly not for the faint of heart, Dark Asylum can really rattle one's chains.

I received a copy of Dark Asylum through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Pegasus Books and to E.S. Thomson for the opportunity.

Dark Asylum
A Novel
by E. S. Thomson
Pegasus Books
Pub Date 07 Nov 2017
Courtesy Netgalley

Dark Asylum is the second book in a series featuring Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain. Jem is an apothecary. Will is an architect. The setting is Victorian London with its tenements full of poverty, crime and disease and a society that punishes those afflicted with a case of being from the lower classes of society. Although I had not read the first book in the series yet (Beloved Poison), I had no problems following the story and the characters. I had read about three chapters before I contacted my library and requested Beloved Poison. Any other books in the series will be requested as soon as they are available.

There were so many things I liked about Dark Asylum. The easiest way to communicate it is probably by bullet points:
* The setting was written very well. All the smells of Victorian London. The darkness, the smog, the tenements. It really created a believable atmosphere.
* The mental health aspect was very well researched. The way people have treated the mentally ill throughout history is diverse. Some cultures treated mentally ill people as though they had been touched by the divine. Then you have the Victorians. The belief that the mental illness was caused by a weakness or failing on the individual’s part and needed to be punished is just cruel. The book does a very good job of showing that mind set while also showing the few who began to realize that possibly humane treatment would do more good than strait jackets and locked cells.
* The characters were fantastic. Characters like Susan Chance did not reveal themselves to the reader all at once. What was revealed was a well rounded and complex character. All the characters were like that.
* Jem. Oh my goodness, Jem. Not having read the first book yet, I do not know Jem’s whole story. What I do know is that Jem is one of the most likeable, relatable and well written characters I have encounter. There is only so much I can say without spoilers. Read the book and you will see what I mean.
* The plot at it’s heart is a mystery. What a fun mystery it was. At one point, I was sure it was this character. I chapter later I changed my mind. A chapter later back to the original one. At the end, I was totally wrong. It is wonderful to be surprised by the solution to a mystery when that solution makes sense.

I was very surprised to find that there are not audio versions of Dark Asylum or the first book in the series. The publisher is missing a huge market by not releasing the books on audio also. Dark Asylum was a joy to read. It really was. I am looking forward to reading more from E. S. Thomson.