historical fiction |author| Tonya Mitchell

"A gorgeously Gothic and atmospheric whodunit filled with surprising twists and memorable characters that I tore through in a single sitting. Inspired by a true-life crime, The Arsenic Eater’s Wife offers proof that the darkest mystery remains the human heart."

—Kris Waldherr, author of Unnatural Creatures: A Novel of the Frankenstein Women and The Lost History of Dreams

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"The insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island

is a human rat trap. It is easy to get in, but

once there, it is impossible to get out."

- Nellie Bly

In order to get hired by a New York paper in 1887, a daring woman fakes insanity to report the atrocities going on inside a remote insane asylum.

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Ever since reading Jane Eyre in high school, Tonya has been drawn to dark stories, particularly of the Gothic variety. Her influences include Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker. More contemporarily, she loves the work of Shirley Jackson, Agatha Christie, Margaret Atwood, and Laura Purcell.

When she landed on a story about a woman who pretended to be insane in order to write a newspaper story, she knew she’d landed on something she was meant to write.