A Poisoner’s Tale

Author/Guide: Cathryn Kemp

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1651: Inspired by the true story of Giulia Tofana: The Angel of Death with a Vial of Vengeance

ISBN: 978-1787637092
Genre: Fiction, Gothic, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

In the shadowy backstreets of the Eternal City lies an apothecary – a place for women to take their heartbreaks and troubles. Herbs for childbirth. Tarot readings to tell their fortunes. An undetectable poison that can kill in four drops.

Alongside her circle of female poisoners, Giulia Tofana dispenses her deadly potion to free the downtrodden women of the city from their abusive husbands.

But even in a time of plague, it does not go unnoticed when the men of Rome begin to fall like flies.

With a newly elected Pope hell-bent on ridding the city of heretics and witches, and the Holy Office of the Inquisition on her tail, Giulia is in more danger than ever. . .

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Travel Guide

Palermo and Rome

The book is largely set in Rome and the Vatican city. What an immersive read! We go through the streets, the darkened alleyways, dodge the men in masks and the creeping shadows, run inside convents looking for salvation and much more.

The author clearly has a time machine. She has been to 17thC Rome as the detail and the immersive scene setting is vivid. Careful though, as so too are the torture scenes and scenes of violence. All essential to the plot and to the story of these women though!

Giulia Tofana died in Rome, 1651 but was born in Palermo and she was an Italian professional poisoner. She sold a poison called Aqua Tofana to women who wanted to murder their husbands. It was thought that she was the daughter of another Palermo poisoner, Thofania d’Adamo.

According to one version of events, Giulia Tofana fled to Rome and set up a poisoning ring that began to sell this poison to women who wanted to escape abusive or inconvenient spouses. There is said to have been 6 women in this poisoning ring active in the 1650s.

Interesting fact from Cathryn – The street Giulia lived on is now called Via Di Monserrato- it was changed at the end of the 17th century. It was originally named after a notorious prison Corte Savella.