A Poisoner's Tale

January 1, 2025

DEBUT In her first work of fiction, ghostwriter and memoirist Kemp (Coming Clean) conjures a tale set in 17th-century Italy, based on the life of Giulia Tofana, who, as a girl, learns the art of poison from her mother as they concoct Acqua Tofana, an arsenic-based potion her mother sells to women in abusive marriages who have no power and no recourse. Kemp fills the gaps in the historical record of Giulia's story, one in which she and her mother arrive in Palermo when a suitor removes her mother from a life of sex work. Teenage Giulia is sexually assaulted by her stepfather. As an adult, she travels to Rome and continues her mother's work as a poisoner. Kemp's evocative writing draws readers into dark Roman alleyways, a city suffering from plague, and a world of women helping other women. Despite Giulia's understandable motive for assisting in the murder of these husbands, her actions read somewhat one-dimensional as the narrative progresses. A single-mindedness of purpose leads Giulia to ill-advised choices that put both her and her inner circle in peril. VERDICT Kemp's deeply researched story pulls in readers, but its narrator stretches the bounds of sympathy and credulity.--Jessica Epstein

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February 1, 2025
The roles allotted to women in Renaissance Europe are very limited, and even the coveted position of wife comes with peril. When Giulia's mother teaches her to concoct acqua, a poison for women needing to escape violent husbands, they cannot anticipate how skilled Giulia will become at this work--or the tragic consequences that result from it. Years later, Giulia is a single woman (a pariah in 1600s Rome), anonymously moving through the shadows with her own daughter and friends, sharing their poison with ordinary, powerless women. But when their poison kills a duke and a cardinal, they become caught in the crosshairs of a new pope determined to root out witchcraft and sorcery. Despite the inevitable outcome, readers will be caught up in the mounting tension as the pope's network of spies closes in. Kemp's debut novel effectively portrays the seething underbelly of Rome and powerfully emphasizes the way gender and class sharply circumscribed the existence of women of the time. A worthy addition to the body of Renaissance historical fiction.

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