Love and Other Poisons
a gripping historical tale of scandal and murder, based on a true story
1857, Glasgow
A young socialite named Madeleine Smith stands accused of murdering her lover. Thousands wait outside the court to hear the result. The scandalous nature of the affair, detailed explicitly in letters published in newspapers across the world, has made her case a worldwide sensation. But when the jury find themselves unable to decide whether she is guilty, they deliver a verdict of ‘Not Proven’ and Madeleine is freed.
1927, New York
Harry Townsend, a handsome Hollywood film scout, believes he has found the woman once known as Madeleine Smith. He wants to tell her story on film for the new ‘talkie’ generation. Since her trial, she has lived under many names, as a glamorous society hostess in bohemian Bloomsbury, to the likes of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Bernard Shaw and William Morris. Until suddenly in 1890, when she disappeared off the face of the earth.
Could this quiet, secretive widow of an Irish labourer be the same Madeleine Smith who once stood trial for murder and escaped?
She has one last secret to tell. Will Harry persuade her to tell it?
