My Five Word TL:DR Review : A Small Circle of Poisoners

A Poisoner’s Tale is a story set predominantly in 17th Century Rome.  As the story begins we meet Giulia Tofana, a young girl living in Palermo.  She soon comes to learn that her mother’s love of herbology and her night time visits abroad have a secret and deadly purpose.  Giulia’s mother has concocted a poison, lethal and untraceable that she supplies to women whose circumstances are dire due to abuse and torment.  To cut to the chase Giulia’s mother suffers the consequences and her daughter is forced to flee Sicily.  We then jump forward a good twenty years.  Giulia is living in Rome, now a mother herself she has taught her secrets not only to her daughter but also a small number of women who similarly now help the women of Rome – that is until the net finally closes in around them.

I’m not going to say anything further about the plot, the outcome is already a foregone conclusion given that this is based on the life of a real woman and her small group of friends, plus the opening chapters make it clear that Giulia is being tried as a witch and I think we probably all know how that will end – torture and execution.  It is believed that Giulia may have been responsible for the deaths of at least 600 men, maybe as many as 1,000, these deaths often going unnoticed due to other factors such as the black death, high mortality rate, etc.  However, eventually, the church begins to take notice and one man in particular makes it his mission to seek out these women and thus a witch hunt begins.

What I liked about this.

The writing is beautiful and evocative.  The descriptions really bring the story to life without being cumbersome and things move forward at a good clip.  I loved the way the tension creeps up on you, and you feel this dread as you move forward – which is a testament to the writing when you consider you already pretty much know how things are going to pan out.  Clearly the author has also done her research and this really comes across.

I loved the small group of friends that Giulia has gathered around herself.  They don’t always agree about every course of action but they are a tight knit circle who stand firmly together.  Giulia is a fantastic character to read about.  The author does an amazing job in making her likable whilst being morally grey.  You could argue that Giulia isn’t responsible for murdering anybody, she doesn’t administer the poison after all, but, at the same time she knows what the poison is being used for, is a gun seller responsible for the actions of others?  These are brutal times and women have few options available to them.  In that respect I would mention that this can be a very difficult read, the women in these pages suffer all sorts of abuse which in turn led them to take such desperate measures so please bear that in mind before reading this.

In terms of criticisms.  Not really criticisms as such – but I couldn’t help feeling frustrated at Giulia and her friends, they became careless and they took risks which inevitably lead to their downfall.  And, the book!  Why on earth keep such a thing, even as a young girl Giulia was aware of the risks of keeping such a ledger and yet as a woman she continued in her mother’s footsteps.  We also have another pov which I had mixed feelings about.  This was a male character, a man of great standing who you could say had become obsessed with Giulia.  I didn’t really enjoy these chapters but having considered it I think that they did help to really demonstrate the strength of feeling at that time towards women, particularly in their inferior status and lack of voice.

In conclusion this is a very thought provoking, at some times difficult but mostly compelling read.  Well written with plenty of feeling where this small group of women are concerned.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 brutally evocative stars