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There are some books that are just perfect for curling under the covers on dark nights. THE POISON ARTIST, part gothic, part CSI, is one of those books, set in a perpetually fog-shrouded San Francisco that is dark and dangerous.
Dr. Caleb Maddox, a toxicologist at a private, top-of-the-line lab, is asked by childhood friend Henry Newcomb, now a city medical examiner, to help him run tests on a series of men who've drowned in the bay. The city's smaller lab seems consistently to be missing something. While the dead men were drunk, it seems unlikely so many of them just accidentally drove or fell into the chilly bay waters. Before their deaths, they were all seen in upscale bars, and Henry is sure a serial killer is at work.
Caleb becomes consumed with the case, as well as with a mysterious, seductive woman that he has met in a bar—just hours after his live-in girlfriend has left him. He's only known Emmeline for a few minutes—the time it takes for her to drink a glass of absinthe—when she disappears, leaving him with just her name. At night, he scours the bars and leaves his phone number with bartenders, hoping to meet her again. He takes to ordering absinthe, losing himself in the cloudy drink.
The twin obsessions come together, as Caleb turns his back on his own lab work and on his girlfriend, who wants to reunite. As he leaves reality behind for this shadowy woman, we also learn that Caleb is haunted by other, long-ago secrets.
Moore, previously nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, has created a mystery that will pull you in as deeply as a glass of absinthe.
§ Lourdes Venard is an independent editor who divides her time between New York and Maui.
Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, December 2015
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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