Opium and absinthe5/29/2023 ![]() ![]() New York’s 5th Avenue, where Tillie lives in Opium and Absinthe. Please Click Here to Subscribe to My History Blog! The story takes place in 1899, the same year that Bram Stoker’s Dracula appeared in print, so Tillie spends much of the book trying to learn how to catch a vampire in between shooting herself up with narcotics. The heroine is available over the counter, in any case, in tablet form.Īnother thing about Lucy’s murder-the killer exsanguinated her body, and the bodies of other victims, too. All of these are, save the last, prescribed by physicians, mind you, putting the questionable medical knowledge of the late 1800s on full display. ![]() Tillie goes from laudanum to opium to morphine to heroine. She wants to investigate the murder, since no one else seems to want to, but she simultaneously becomes hooked on sedatives, then stronger drugs, to deal with her shoulder pain. ![]() The events that kick the plot into motion are Tillie breaking her shoulder in a horse-riding accident and her sister Lucy’s murder. Sadly for Tillie, the rest of her family is the reverse. She’s curious about more than how to make more money and keep her wardrobe up-to-date and fashionable. She reads dictionaries, for goodness sake. The main character is Tillie Pembroke, an heiress for an elite New York family. Opium and Absinthe is also, like The Impossible Girl, a historical mystery that calls on the author’s former career in the medical field. For one, the setting is New York City once again, although now we’re in the 1890s rather than the 1850s. This is the second book I’ve reviewed from Lydia Kang and it bears a few similarities to the first. This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger For my recent reviews of other novels, see:Ī Long Petal of the Sea, by Isabel Allende Opium and Absinthe is a recent historical fiction novel from Lydia Kang. ![]()
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