E. S. Thomson

WINNER OF THE CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER In Bloody Scotland a selection of Scotland's best crime writers use the sinister side of the country's built heritage in stories that are by turns gripping, chilling and redemptive. Stellar contributors Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Denise Mina, Ann Cleeves, Louise Welsh, Lin Anderson, Doug Johnstone, Gordon Brown, Craig Robertson, E S Thomson, Sara Sheridan and Stuart MacBride explore the thrilling potential of Scotland's iconic sites and structures. From murder in an ancient broch and a macabre tale of revenge among the furious clamour of an eighteenth century mill, to a dark psychological thriller set within the tourist throng of Edinburgh Castle and a rivalry turning fatal in the concrete galleries of an abandoned modernist ruin, this collection uncovers the intimate - and deadly - connections between people and places. Prepare for a dangerous journey into the dark shadows of our nation's buildings - where passion, fury, desire and death collide.

'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 'Immersive' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 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

'Immersive from the start and satisfying to the finish, a faultless tale from one of our best writers of historical crime fiction' JESS KIDDIn 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'Immersive' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAYPRAISE 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

London, 1851. Restless and bored after a long hot summer, apothecary and poison expert Jem Flockhart decides to redesign her physic garden. But plans are thrown into confusion when a man's skeleton is unearthed from beneath the deadly nightshade, a smaller, child-like skeleton curled at its feet. The body bears evidence of knife wounds to its ribs and arms, and is accompanied by a collection of macabre objects: a brass bowl, a curious coin-like token, a set of tiny ivory sculls. The police claim the victim is too long-buried for answers to be found, but for Jem, a corpse in her own garden is something that cannot be ignored. The plans to the garden, laid out some forty years earlier, reveal a list of five names. When Jem and Will start asking questions, the murders begin. Each victim has a past connection with the physic garden; each corpse is found with its jaw broken wide and its mouth stuffed with deadly nightshade. As they move closer to uncovering the truth Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain encounter a dark world of addiction, madness, power and death that strikes at the very heart of Jem's own history. This time, the poison is personal.

'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 NightshadeA 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. London, 1851. Restless and bored after a long hot summer, apothecary and poison expert Jem Flockhart decides to redesign her physic garden. But plans are thrown into confusion when a man's skeleton is unearthed from beneath the deadly nightshade, a smaller, child-like skeleton curled at its feet. The body bears evidence of knife wounds to its ribs and arms, and is accompanied by a collection of macabre objects: a brass bowl, a curious coin-like token, a set of tiny ivory sculls. The police claim the victim is too long-buried for answers to be found, but for Jem, a corpse in her own garden is something that cannot be ignored. The plans to the garden, laid out some forty years earlier, reveal a list of five names. When Jem and Will start asking questions, the murders begin. Each victim has a past connection with the physic garden; each corpse is found with its jaw broken wide and its mouth stuffed with deadly nightshade. As they move closer to uncovering the truth Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain encounter a dark world of addiction, madness, power and death that strikes at the very heart of Jem's own history. This time, the poison is personal. . . Praise for E. S. Thomson's novels:'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'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

'Superb' Sunday ExpressA 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

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.

A chilling and atmospheric thriller set in a crumbling Victorian asylum, perfect for fans of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Silent Companions and The Strangers Diaries.

A dark and richly atmospheric thriller, perfect for fans of Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions, Sarah Perry's Melmoth and Elly Griffiths' The Stranger Diaries.

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.'Here's a tale of Victorian London to freeze your blood on a cold winter's night' - Evening Telegraph'Beloved Poison is a marvellous, vivid book with a thoughtful, engaging protagonist at its centre - and a fascinating story to tell. It's immaculately researched and breathtakingly dark' - Janet Ellis, author of The Butcher's Hook