From the bestselling author of A Beautiful Poison comes another spellbinding historical novel full of intrigue, occult mystery, and unexpected twists.
New York City, 1899. Tillie Pembroke’s sister lies dead, her body drained of blood and with two puncture wounds on her neck. Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, has just been published, and Tillie’s imagination leaps to the impossible: the murderer is a vampire. But it can’t be―can it?
A ravenous reader and researcher, Tillie has something of an addiction to truth, and she won’t rest until she unravels the mystery of her sister’s death. Unfortunately, Tillie’s addicted to more than just truth; to ease the pain from a recent injury, she’s taking more and more laudanum…and some in her immediate circle are happy to keep her well supplied.
Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real―or whether she can trust those closest to her.
Lakeview Union Publishing: July 1, 2020 | Paperback: 383 pages
About the Author
Lydia Kang is an author and internal medicine physician. She is a graduate of Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, and she completed her training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She lives with her family in the Midwest. Follow her on Twitter @LydiaYKang and Instagram @LydiaKang.
Review
“Opium and Absinthe is a compelling historical fiction…Fans of Kang’s previous work (A Beautiful Poison, 2017) will best appreciate her trademark historical-mystery plot.” ―Booklist
“Kang’s whirlwind tour of New York in the Naughty ‘90s is worth the price of admission.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Lydia Kang is one of the great virtuosos of the crime genre…Well-researched, grounded in the past, and ultra-relevant to today’s opioid epidemic, Opium and Absinthe is not to be missed.” ―CrimeReads
“A new historical novel full of intrigue, occult mystery, and unexpected twists.” ―Criminal Element
“An impressively original, inherently fascinating, compulsive page turner of a novel, Lydia Kang knows how to hold her reader’s rapt attention from first page to last.” ―Midwest Book Review
“Kang’s language is exquisite, matching the fine society she writes so fluidly about. It’s fair to say this is similar to a Jane Austen novel and readers of feminist literature will embrace it easily. Opium and Absinthe is a perfect concoction of romance and mystery that boils down to studies in addiction and gaining independence in a suffocating world.” ―Haunted by Deadlines
