A Beautiful Poison by Lydia Kang + a Giveaway

Happy Friday, everybody! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Lydia Kang's latest, A Beautiful Poison.

It's 1918 and Allene Cutter is engaged to be married. But when a guest at her engagement party falls down the stairs, dying on impact, things get a little mysterious. 

One of Allene's guests, a friend with a tarnished past, swears he smells almonds on the breath of the dead girl. And he would know. But Allene's own father pays the police to hush things up quickly - after all, the dead girl was a socialite from a good family and Allene's own reputation could be affected. But when more people around Allene begin dying, each accompanied by a strange note, she can't help but investigate. With her friends Jasper and Birdie by her side, the trio begin digging into a case that puts them each in potentially grave danger. Can they unmask the killer without becoming victims themselves?

If you can't tell, A Beautiful Poison gets started pretty darn quickly. The players are introduced, the first mysterious death occurs, and a cover up begins all in the very first few pages. And it's oh, so deliciously fun!

Allene doesn't conform to the societal role expected of her. In fact, she bucks it pretty much every chance she gets. She's 18 and engaged, but not at all excited or really interested in marrying her fiancé. In fact, she'd rather spend her time studying science, something recently forbidden by her father in the wake of her mother's illness. But Allene doesn't really give a fig about that, hence her investigation!

Jasper is perfectly placed to help with this amateur sleuthing - he works at Bellevue Hospital as a janitor in the pathology building as he tries to save enough money for medical school. Jasper grew up alongside Allene until his family's position in society plummeted. His and Birdie's stories are revealed as the tale progresses, so I don't want to give anything away.

One of the really cool aspects of this book is the fact that Kang herself is a physician. And like Jasper, she worked at Bellevue. Her knowledge and expertise really comes through as the story progresses. And this is a story set during the outbreak of Spanish Flu that also has poison and (AND) Radium Girls! So yeah, all that combined makes for a pretty fabulously intriguing and cool story.

A Beautiful Poison is out now, but I am offering up a copy here to one of you fabulous readers! To throw your name in the hat, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, August 21. Open US only and no PO boxes please.

Best of luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Lydia Kang and her work you can visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble