Love and Other Poisons: a gripping historical tale of scandal and murder, based on a true story

Lesley McDowell

Jul 2025 · Sold by Wildfire

Ebook

368

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Eligible

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'A fascinating, forensic deep-dive' DENISE MINA

'Beautifully written, richly evoked and utterly gripping' EVA DOLAN
'A seductive tale of sex and death' SARA SHERIDAN
***
1857, Glasgow.
Madeleine Smith, a young socialite, is on trial for murdering her lover. The scandal shocks the world, with intimate letters published in newspapers. The jury can't decide - delivering a rare 'Not Proven' verdict. Madeleine walks free.

1927, New York.
Hollywood scout Harry Townsend believes he's found Madeleine, now an elusive widow living under a new name. Once a dazzling figure in bohemian London, she vanished in 1890.

Could this quiet woman really be the infamous Madeleine Smith?
She holds one last secret. Will Harry convince her to share it?

***

More praise for Lesley McDowell:
'Riveting - a clever portrait of a fascinating, flawed heroine.' THE TIMES
'An intimate and enlightening tale of one of Romanticism's forsaken muses.' SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN
'An absorbing, intoxicating page-turner about a woman who deserves to be remembered.' JENNIFER SAINT
'A must-read. McDowell brings to vivid, embodied life; a flirtatious, flawed woman fighting for her place in a man's world.' THE HERALD

'A fascinating, forensic deep-dive' DENISE MINA 'Beautifully written, richly evoked and utterly gripping' EVA DOLAN 'A seductive tale of sex and death' SARA SHERIDAN *** 1857, Glasgow. Madeleine Smith, a young socialite, is on trial for murdering her lover. The scandal shocks the world, with in...

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About the author

Lesley McDowell's debut novel The Picnic came out in 2007. In 2010 she published Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th-Century Women Writers, which was shortlisted for the non-fiction prize at the 2011 Scottish Book Awards. Her second novel Unfashioned Creatures, about Mary Shelley's Scottish childhood friend, was published in 2013. Lesley was a literary critic for the Herald, Scotsman, Independent, TLS and others. She has a PhD on the work of James Joyce and has won three Creative Scotland writers' bursaries. Her third novel, Clairmont, is a historical retelling of the story of Lord Byron and the Shelleys from the perspective of his secret muse, Claire Clairmont. Love and Other Poisons is her fourth novel.

Lesley McDowell's debut novel The Picnic came out in 2007. In 2010 she published Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th-Century Women Writers, which was shortlisted for the non-fiction prize at the 2011 Scottish Book Awards. Her second novel Unfashioned Creatures, about Mary Shell...

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