The Wages of Sin

January 2, 2017
In Welsh’s moving, nuanced first novel, a late Victorian whodunit, Sarah Gilchrist decides to make a new start after an acquaintance sexually assaults her, a traumatic experience that her proper family views as a source of shame. Sarah moves from London to Edinburgh to attend medical school, where she’s bullied by her male colleagues and shunned by some of her female ones. In addition to keeping up with her studies, Sarah assists at Saint Giles’s Infirmary for Women and Children, a clinic for the indigent. Lucy Collins, a pregnant prostitute, seeks an abortion at Saint Giles’s, but the director sends her away. Four nights later, Sarah is shocked to see that the body in the medical school dissection room is Lucy’s. Her professor suggests death was caused by a laudanum overdose, but Sarah notices bruises and other marks that suggest Lucy was assaulted, reminding her of her own victimization. Superior characterizations and convincing period detail make up for the routine sleuthing that ensues. Agent: Laura Macdougall, Tibor Jones & Associates (U.K.).

Starred review from February 1, 2017

Medical school is hard enough, but when you're one of only a handful of women at an elite Edinburgh institute in Victorian-era Scotland, "hard" doesn't begin to describe the experience. Such is life for the steadfast Sarah Gilchrist, who's braving the (unnamed) male-dominated school that may have accepted her on paper but certainly doesn't welcome her. A former London debutante who was raped by the son of a lord and then thrown in a sanatorium to be treated for her alleged "promiscuity," Sarah discovers that her past makes her even more of a pariah at school, though she does eventually find a friend. When she recognizes one of the anatomy class corpses as a working girl she met while volunteering at a clinic, Sarah is determined to uncover whether the girl committed suicide or was murdered. Her investigation takes her from Edinburgh's less-than-savory opium dens and seedy gathering places to its more high-society watering holes. Sarah is a spunky but historically accurate heroine, bucking the most restrictive traditions in order to comment on them. VERDICT The first book in what will, one hopes, be a long-running series, featuring a new kind of historical leading lady, Welsh's debut is an inspiring feminist tale perfect for the modern age.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017

First-year medical student Sarah Gilchrist, one of her school's 12 newly admitted women, spends her off-duty time treating the poor at an infirmary nestled in the dark, damp backstreets of 1892 Edinburgh. Disease, prostitution, gambling, and drugs flourish here, but Sarah finds her calling in helping young women caught in the depths of poverty. In school one day, Sarah recognizes the body of Lucy, one of her patients, on the dissecting table. Certain that Lucy was murdered, Sarah sets out to discover the killer. She takes to the streets to investigate and learns that her professors indulge in the vices of the city. As Sarah begins to make connections, she gets into trouble, but her past haunts her and compels her to seek answers despite possible repercussions. Welsh examines poverty's harsh effects, a strongly patriarchal society, demanding cultural expectations, and the consequences for 19th-century women who wanted to forge a path of their own. Balancing her medical studies, her formidable relatives, and her work in the infirmary with her obsession with identifying Lucy's murderer, Sarah is stretched to the limit. This gripping, thought-provoking historical mystery will open teens' eyes to the reality of life for independent women in the 1800s. VERDICT For readers interested in women's history or those who enjoy delving into Victorian society.-Connie Williams, Petaluma High School, CA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017
Welsh deftly explores an era of pioneering women in her first novel. Set in 1882, The Wages of Sin follows Sarah Gilchrist as she enters the University of Edinburgh's medical school with its first class of women. A disgraced London aristocrat, Sarah finds that her reputation precedes her in Edinburgh, and she is friendless among her class of women in an even less friendly university atmosphere. Her only place of welcome is the clinic, in Edinburgh's seediest slum, where she assists. When one of her patients turns up in the mortuary at the university, Sarah is shocked to find evidence of murder and takes it upon herself to investigate the untimely death. Welsh's deeply feminist novel is an engaging, fast-paced tale full of twists and turns. Though at times somewhat predictable, the novel puts on full display the various struggles of women entering academia, as well as women's class struggles. Readers who enjoy historical fiction that incorporates mystery and female empowerment will love this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)