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Early 1800s: A chemist’s daughter turns out to be a determined detective as she aims to solve the mystery of a poisoning linked to her father’s store.
The Poisonous Seed (Frances Doughty 1)
What you need to know before your trail
William Doughty and his daughter Frances work in his chemist shop in the Bayswater area of London. He dispenses medicine to a wide range of customers and is well known for his good humour and service. However all that changes when one patient who has recently picked up some medicine from the shop , is found poisoned. Facing ruin, Frances is keen to find out exactly how the medicine could have been tampered with, if it was indeed the medicine which killed him. She believes it to be murder but the police nor anyone else will listen to her. When she starts investigating, the case of poison is only the start of the dangerous path she is now on.
Travel Guide
An historical and evocative novel of the old fashioned Victorian chemists, apothecaries or dispensaries whatever you wish to call them. A fictional store on a very real street – Westbourne Grove in Bayswater and the Whiteley’s department store give an insight into a time and place long gone but still there in sprit.
In the author’s note, there is mention of many characters and places which are both real and fictional on which the novel is inspired by which gives a real sense of time and place to the overall story. The Bayswater area of London was a busy thoroughfare in its day and even now along Queensway you can feel the bustling streets and crowds that Frances would have come across. Take Westbourne Grove for instance –
“On the north side of the Grove, the unfashionable side, opposite the sumptuous glitter of Whiteleys, Wilfred found his destination.”
Victorian London is brought vividly to life. The role of women too for Frances is bound by society so whilst she works in the shop, she is fine but as soon as she starts to become a detective, she has to find imaginative ways of getting information where only male detectives would be able to get.
The details about medicine at the time gave a fascinating insight into the medical help and service available at the time and how potions were made up and administered. Rich Mr Garton has been found poisoned after dining at a friends house but it’s the poor chemist who is instantly blamed and ostracised by the public, long before the mystery is solved. Wealthy men often had enemies Frances says, and the only way to find out is to find the journey of the bottle from the store to the wealthy home of Mr Garton.
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