Veil of Doubt
On March 24, 1872, the child Maud Lloyd dies, gasping for air. Days later the girl’s mother, Emily, is arrested and charged with not only her death, but also the poisoning deaths of five other family members. Veil of Doubt is the fictionalized story of the arrest and prosecution of the woman who came to be known as The Poison Fiend.
Virts’ second novel is multi-layered. The progression of the case against Emily is interspersed with references to Civil War battles and wounded soldiers as well as civilians, legal maneuverings, and witness statements. Backstory plotlines are often distracting, however, slowing plot development and tension. Other sideline elements also interrupt the storyline. Quotations from Scriptures appear without clear links to the situation in which they reside, and repeated conversations covering much of the same material make for an impatient read.
Veil of Doubt nonetheless tells a fascinating and carefully researched story with (at least to this reader) surprising factual details. For example, heavy metals, such as arsenic, could be detected in tissues extracted from exhumed bodies as early as 1829, but some psychiatric disorders were not defined and made public until 1906.
The overabundance of information tends to bog down the storyline. But aficionados of forensics, legal procedurals, and psychiatric manifestations most decidedly will enjoy the bounty.
