I found this installment more enjoyable compared to book 1, although it still had its shortcomings. There's a certain elusive quality missing from this series that prevents it from rising above being just an average read for me. However, I don't necessarily dislike them [and I particularly appreciated the narrator much more this time around; perhaps it's because I've encountered several truly dreadful narrators lately, but who can say for sure]. Despite any reservations, I do feel compelled to continue reading them [once I become invested in a story, I tend to become fully engrossed]. Perhaps by the time I reach book 3, I'll have a clearer understanding of why.

Katharine Schellman has a way with words. This second installment of the Nightingale Mystery series, like the first, has more tension than I usually seek in my mysteries, but I just love her work so much that I can’t help myself. I’m thoroughly delighted by the turns of phrases and the brilliant character crafting. The narrator, Sara Young, is marvelous and her voice brings this story to life beautifully. There’s adventure, growth, and a lovely little bit of love in this latest installment.

Set in the Jazz Age, this sequel returns us to the lovely cast of folks, scraping by and doing their best, supporting each other along the way, and trying to sort out exactly what’s happened when one of their own - a beloved uncle - is found unexpectedly deceased. There's mystery, risk, community and maybe even a little blackmail to keep us on our toes the whole way through!

Vivian Kelly lives a simple life with her sister Florence. They may not have the finer things in life, but they get by and are happy in their lives. Much of Vivan’s time is spent at The Nightingale, a speakeasy she works at along with her best friend Bea, a singer at the club. When Bea’s Uncle Pearlie, a doorman at The Nightingale, is found dead. Officials are ruling it a suicide due to poison, a ruling that Bea won’t accept. As she and Vivian look more into Pearlie’s death they discover that there is a lot more to Pearlie’s death than they previously thought, and he may not be the only person that the killer has in their sights.

The Last Drop of Hemlock is Schellman’s follow-up to Last Call at the Nightingale, and I really enjoyed my time catching up with Vivian and Bea and all the others at the Nightingale. This novel was more of a slow-burn than the prior novel; it took awhile to really get into the story. The mystery was intriguing once things got going, and I also really liked seeing Florence come out of her shell in this one. Between the era, the speakeasy, the characters and the story I found this to be a fun series to return to.

I enjoyed the audiobook as well. Young gives each character their own personality and voice, making each one unique. I wish the pace had been a little faster, but between the inflection and tone it was still an enjoyable audiobook that added to my enjoyment of the story being told.

Although I had high hopes for the book, it ended up being a letdown. I was disappointed and found it hard to stay engaged with the story, despite my initial excitement.

Thank you, NetGalley, Publishers, and Katharine Schellman for gifting me a copy of The Last Drop of Hemlock in return for my honest opinion.

In The Last Drop of Hemlock, the dazzling follow-up to Last Call at the Nightingale, even a dance can come with a price...
The rumor went through the Nightingale like a flood, quietly rising, whispers hovering on lips in pockets of silence.

New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly has gotten a job at the Nightingale, a speakeasy known to the young and fun as a place where the rules of society can be tossed aside for a dance and a drink, and things are finally looking up for her and her sister Florence. They might not be living like queens—still living in a dingy, two-room tenement, still scrimping and saving—but they're confident in keeping a roof over their heads and, every once in a while, there is fried ham for breakfast.

Of course, things were even better before Bea's Uncle Pearlie, the doorman for the Nightingale, was poisoned. Bea has been Vivian's best friend since before she can remember, and though Pearlie's death is ruled a suicide, Bea's sure her uncle wouldn't have killed himself. After all, he had the family to care for . . . and there have been rumors of a mysterious letter writer, blackmailing Vivian's poorest neighbors for their most valuable possessions, threatening poison if they don't comply.

With the Nightingale's dangerously lovely owner, Honor, worried for her employees' safety and Bea determined to prove her Uncle was murdered, Vivian once again finds herself digging through a dead man's past in hopes of stopping a killer.

3.5/5 stars

This was a fascinating read for me. There were points where I couldn't stop listening to it and others where it felt like the book would never end. But it did lean more towards the couldn't push pause than me being bored which is why I gave it the rating I did. It also helped that I was listening too it which made it so I could speed up during the parts I didn't really enjoy.

I loved how it was centered in the 1920's when speakeasies were needed if you wanted a drink and Jazz was at an all-time high. This was my first book set in this time period and I really enjoyed listening to that aspect. I didn't know till after I started that it was the second book in the series but I also don't feel like I was missing much.

I really enjoyed the previous book in this series, and was excited to read THE LAST DROP OF HEMLOCK.

From the prohibition-era backdrop of NYC, to the mystery woven through the story, I loved this book as much as the first book.

The narrator was entertaining and I would put this cozy mystery on your TBR if you’re looking for a bit of mystery that isn’t too scary.

*many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Another fun historical mystery from Katharine Schellman.

This is the follow-up to Last Call at the Nightingale, and while it’s a bit less engaging than the first book in the series, it’s entertaining enough and the characters remain likable and worth rooting for.

Viv’s romantic entanglements don’t particularly interest me, but the central mystery is intriguing enough and the buddy mystery vibes of these remain solid. I’d like to see more of Danny and Viv’s sister and maybe a bit less of Honor, but on the whole the series continues to be worth reading. I’m a little worried that there isn’t really a worthy continuing plot line to keep readers engaged from book to book, but perhaps we’ll get there eventually.

"The Last Drop of Hemlock" drops the reader off in prohibition-era New York City and the mystery begins to unfold. Protagonist Vivian Kelly finds herself in the middle of perplexing murder mystery that has started to affect her friends and neighbors. It's a winding mystery that makes the reader feel like they're trying to solve it alongside Vivian and her friends. My favorite part was how true to the era the writing was. Little details do the hard job of worldbuilding, to great success.

I was pleasantly surprised how much I was interested in this story. It is the 2nd in a series and I didn't read the first one. It was good as a stand alone.
1920s New York, I have an affection for this sub genre. I would continue to read more in this series.

The Last Drop of Hemlock
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Katherine Schellman

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Dreamscape Media and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly has gotten a job at the Nightingale, a speakeasy known to the young and fun as a place where the rules of society can be tossed aside for a dance and a drink, and things are finally looking up for her and her sister Florence. They might not be living like queens—still living in a dingy, two-room tenement, still scrimping and saving—but they're confident in keeping a roof over their heads and, every once in a while, there is fried ham for breakfast.

Of course, things were even better before Bea's Uncle Pearlie, the doorman for the Nightingale, was poisoned. Bea has been Vivian's best friend since before she can remember, and though Pearlie's death is ruled a suicide, Bea's sure her uncle wouldn't have killed himself. After all, he had the family to care for . . . and there have been rumors of a mysterious letter writer, blackmailing Vivian's poorest neighbors for their most valuable possessions, threatening poison if they don't comply.

With the Nightingale's dangerously lovely owner, Honor, worried for her employees' safety and Bea determined to prove her Uncle was murdered, Vivian once again finds herself digging through a dead man's past in hopes of stopping a killer.

My Thoughts: This was book number two of the Nightingale Mysteries. I did not read the first book and was able to navigate fine in this second book, so it can be read as a standalone. This is a slow burn atmospheric cozy mystery. It was a little too slow for my liking. The author creates a very diversified 1920’s Manhattan with Black, Asian, Bisexuality, and Jewish.

The characters were mysterious, expansive, and creative. The one character that I really did not care for was Viv and Flo’s boss at the sewing shop, she was just so mean and played a bigger part in the book that I wanted to see. The characters from the Nightingale were not blood but were created as family, which is so refreshing to see. It is also not the blood that makes a person family. The author’s attention to detail was so immersive that you felt like you had been dropped in New York in 1920. The pacing and flow of the book was off to me, the beginning was great and the last part of the story was great, but the middle seemed to drag on too much. I hoping some of the parts that fell flat will be resolved in book three.

I was lucky to get the digital arc and audio arc. The narrator did a good job with narration and I have read that this book two was narrated better than book one. Overall, a good mystery and if you love historical cozy mysteries, then I would recommend this one for you.

The Last Drop of Hemlock is a historical mystery with some good 'ole amateur sleuthing set in the prohibition era, centered around an underground speakeasy known for it's booze, dancing, and jazz music. When the doorman is poisoned, the unearthed rumors and blackmail just add to the danger that Vivian finds herself in on her journey to the truth.

I did not realize going into this book that it was the second installation of a series but it does also work really well as a standalone, so you won't have much difficulty if you just jump into the series with this title. While I didn't love the pacing at the beginning of the mystery unfolding, I did find that The Last Drop of Hemlock is a very plot driven mystery that leaves plenty of room for the characters to grow and develop for future installations and it intrigues me to see where this series could go.

The Last Drop of Hemlock is the second historical mystery featuring the prohibition era jazz club The Nightingale written by Katharine Schellman. Released 6th June 2023 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

This is a well written historical cozy(ish) mystery with an ensemble returning cast of characters and based on a fictitious New York City speakeasy during prohibition. There are a number of gender-fluid, bi-, and otherwise non-traditional presenting characters which was nice to see. The cast is also racially diverse and the story is blissfully without "token" representations. It might not be, strictly speaking, historically accurate, but it was refreshing to read. Other than the kindly wishful anachronistic diverse cast, the book seems to do a good, relatively accurate job with the official/police and political corruption of the time.

The central murder mystery revolves around the poisoning death of the uncle of the club's chanteuse, Bea. A series of threatening letters and thefts in the neighborhood sees the Nightingale's employees turn amateur sleuth. There's a significant romance subplot, so readers who enjoy romance and mystery will find a lot to love here. There's also an ancillary overarching multi-book mystery concerning the parentage and family history of two of the main characters, sisters Viv and Flo.

Despite being the second book in the series, it works well enough as a standalone, and the main mystery is resolved in this volume. The language is mostly accurate to the period and adds a lot to the read.

The unabridged audiobook format has a run time of 10 hours, 12 minutes and is well narrated by series narrator Sara Young. She has a warm and rich clear alto voice and does a good job delineating the widely varied accents of a range of characters of all ages and both sexes including elderly and young voices. Sound and production quality are high throughout the recording.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced listening copy of The Last Drop of Hemlock. This was a pretty well done mystery book that really was made for audio. Some books just flow so well as an audiobook especially depending on the narrator and if they put the emotion into that the authors clearly put into it.

The second in the Nightingale series did not disappoint! It was fun to revisit Vivian and her gang and follow along in her latest intrigue. I'm still a little annoyed at the feeling of having a "check-list" cast - one Black, one LGBTQ+, one Asian, etc. but it didn't feel quite as forced this time. I enjoyed the developing relationship between Viv and her sister and I was glad to see Florence start being fleshed out as a character. I'm intrigued about the relationship between Flo and Danny - I'm looking forward to seeing how that progresses despite all the obstacles they are sure to face. Speaking of Danny - I'm curious about how Vivian is going to resolve her feelings for him. She already has a love triangle going with Leo and Honor (kudos to the author for making Viv a completely believable bisexual character) so the Danny element, especially considering his interactions with Florence will no doubt be a conflict in the next book.

The mystery that propels the plot was compelling and creative yet left a lot of room for the character development, giving readers an opportunity to truly make connections and giving us reasons for wanting to continue with the series. I really appreciate an author who doesn't rely on cheap tricks like cliff-hangers and instead gives us honest reasons to want to come back.

Thank you to NetGalley and DreamScape Media for an ALC in exchange for my honest opinions.

I fell in love with the cover. Honestly, I really was expecting a lot more from for The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman. Unfortunately, I really had a difficult time clicking with the storyline. The plot and characters seemed disjointed. I found myself skipping through it but I did finish the book

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Audiobook Narration by Sara Young-- enjoyed her narration and voice.

Book Moods: murder, speakeasy, mystery, blackmail, dancing

I didn't realize this was book 2 in a series because it was great as a stand-alone. I wasn't lost in anything. I liked this book and stayed intrigued the whole time. I liked the characters. They all were interesting, cool, and endearing. This is a simple, but a little twisty, mystery.

Thanks to @netgalley and @dreamscape_media for this copy! Available now!

#bookrecommendations #audiobookstagram #audiobookrecommendation

I had high expectations for The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman. Ultimately, I had a really hard time connecting with the plot and characters. I think I'm in the minority of people who didn't care for it. It just didn't keep me interested.

New York City, the 1920’s, speakeasy feel and a murder mystery with strong women characters, yes please. I have really enjoyed both books in the Nightingale series. Can’t wait to see what comes next for this cast of characters. Thanks NetGalley for the audio eArc.

I just couldn't connect to this story. I'm sure a different me in a different time would feel something else. but it just wasn't clicking.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I did not connect with the storyline. Additionally, I felt the story lagged. I lost interest and could not stay focused.