Yellow Jessamine

Starred review from June 29, 2020
The past finds ever more painful ways to haunt the heroine of this gorgeous, taut novella from Starling (The Luminous Dead). Lady Evelyn Perdanu is one of the most powerful shipping magnates in Delphinium, a position won through an act of violent self-preservation passed off as tragedy. To the outside world, her male family members died of a mysterious illness. In reality she poisoned them to avoid the marriage they’d arranged for her, leaving herself the lone proprietress of the family empire with only her assistant, Violetta, as a companion. But when a plague arrives in Delphinium on one of Evelyn’s ships, her power over the city is threatened. The illness leaves all those infected as catatonic shells—but before the catatonia sets in, the sick are overcome with a singular obsession: Evelyn herself. Evelyn hides within the walls of her estate—but the illness will stop at nothing until it reaches her. No word is out of place in Starling’s lush tale, which ties each small detail together in a conclusion that will knock readers’ socks off. This powerful dark fantasy is as lovely as it is haunting. Agent: Caitlin McDonald, Donald Maass Literary.