The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd

'The Poisoned Island' by Lloyd Shepherd

LONDON 1812: For forty years Britain has dreamed of the Pacific island of Tahiti, a dark paradise of bloody cults and beautiful natives. Now, decades after the first voyage of Captain Cook, a new ship returns to London, crammed with botanical specimens and, it seems, the mysteries of Tahiti. When, days after the Solander's arrival, some of its crew are found dead and their sea-chests ransacked - their throats slashed, faces frozen into terrible smiles - John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames river police, puts constable Charles Horton in charge of the investigation. But what connects the crewmen's dying dreams with the ambitions of the ship's principal backer, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society? And how can Britain's new science possibly explain the strangeness of Tahiti's floral riches now growing at Kew? Horton must employ his singular methods to uncover a chain of conspiracy stretching all the way back to the foot of the great dead volcano Tahiti Nui, beneath the hungry eyes of ancient gods.

REVIEW

I was really looking forward to reading this, as from the description it sounded like a really good story, but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it at all. I wanted to put it down many times and not pick it back up but I did as it was a bookclub book and I still found that I needed to know what happened and I did hope it might capture me at some point. I didn’t like how it jumped around from past to present and I found I had to keep turning back to remember who was who and from where and from what time!!

Would not recommend