The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd is a tense atmospheric Victorian Murder mystery. It is well written and deftly plotted. The characters are suited to their time and setting. Shepherd plays the air of English superiority heavily in the interaction with the islanders, even with the crew who are obviously uneducated and working class.
The sailing vessel the Solander has arrived in London after a voyage to the island of Tahiti in June of 1812. Aboard it brings home a treasure of botanical oddities. Plants unknown to the British but their rarity is immeasurable in value. The highest minds want to study them but the voyage was funded by Sir Joseph Banks and he has his own plans for the bounty the ship has brought. Banks does not just have the desires of science in mind, no he has something else in mind altogether.
It is not only the plants that come ashore from the Solander, but murder as well. As one by one a group of sailors die.
"You have no thoughts yourself?"
"None at all. The man's neck was bruised, I am told, confirming the analysis of strangulation. But he had a confoundedly happy grin on his face, which struck Horton as most odd. He seems to have died happy, in any case."
Graham, ruefully, looks at his fork.
"We should all like to die happy," he says.
"Indeed. But what does an illiterate sailor with grim lodgings and a fat old mistress have to be happy about?"
"I sometimes think an ordinary life would be more desirable than the one I lead."
It is something else the Solander has brought back from Tahiti than just exotic plants. It is a leaf when brewed becomes a powerful opiate. It is up to Constable Horton to unravel the mystery and the murderer before the danger reaches him or his family.
The Poisoned Island is a well crafted mystery that at times may be slow but still moves along at a good pace.
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