A review by opticflow
The Poison Diaries by The Duchess of Northumberland, Maryrose Wood

5.0

Unexpectedly, I loved this. Halfway through I thought ok, an interesting historical danger romance beach read, the perfect guilty pleasure fodder. But the end twisted and turned into a supernatural mad science obsession horror à la Frankenstein. I have read nearly every non-fiction book about poisonous elements and plants but I never knew about Alnwick castle or the Duchess of Northumberland's poison garden. So thanks to this book I'm off on a research tangent and planning a trip to the north country. Any book that inspires a trip gets five stars, full stop.