The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio
What better setting for a Gothic murder mystery than 19th-century Edinburgh? Especially with "resurrection men" plundering the cemeteries and lady "undergraduettes" permitted to dissect cadavers at the university's famed medical school. Kaite Welsh relishes these surroundings in her pungent first book, The Wages of Sin.
Publishers Weekly
01/02/2017
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.). (Mar.)
Kate Hamer
A gripping story [and] a great central character. Full of riotous, beautifully drawn period detail.
Emma Rees
It’s rare to find a truly fresh new voice in fiction. Welsh’s writing is intense, passionate, and dramatic. She turns phrases until they’re exquisitely wrought, and fashions from the raw material of language something beautiful and unique.
BookFilter
This debut mystery has an engrossing setting and an engaging heroine. It's good fun and the characters are vivid.
Catherine Hall
I absolutely loved The Wages of Sin, especially the funny, feisty Sarah Gilchrist, a Victorian feminist for modern times. Transported between the horrors of medical dissection rooms, the back streets of Edinburgh, opium dens and brothels, I was captivated, right to the the very end.”
The Star-Ledger
The Wages of Sin has three critical things going for it. First, it's a strong series debut. Second, Welsh is based in the city in which her story transpires, rendering her supporting research spot on. Third, and most important, she is a good writer who has figured out how to plot a fine mystery. Any fan of Victorian-era mysteries who picks up this one will eagerly await the next in Welsh's series.”
Mystery Scene
An excellent debut novel that is both entertaining and educational.
Shelf Awareness
Gripping. An exhilarating and atmospheric mystery set mostly in the gas-lit streets of Edinburgh. Welsh balances her protagonist's progressive inclinations with a self-awareness that enables her to play the roles that the era demands. The result is a layered, provocative and riveting mystery about Victorian dynamics and womanhood.
Historical Novels Review
With a strong plot and sharply drawn characters, the author effectively portrays the attitudes and prejudices of Victorians towards women and their role in society along with a dark tale of murder. With a nod to Conan Doyle, and a satisfying and surprising conclusion, this is a readable and welcome addition to the genre.
Criminal Element
A top-class crime thriller, a riveting social documentary, and a fascinating historical novel. Brilliant writing. A total gem.
Booklist
Welsh’s deeply feminist novel is an engaging, fast-paced tale full of twists and turns. 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.
Marilyn Stasio
What better setting for a Gothic murder mystery than 19th-century Edinburgh? Kaite Welsh relishes these surroundings in her pungent first book, The Wages of Sin.”
Library Journal
★ 02/01/2017
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.
School Library Journal
08/01/2017
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
Kirkus Reviews
2016-12-19
An intrepid female medical student stumbles on a conspiracy in Victorian-era Edinburgh.Sarah Gilchrist is one of a dozen young women braving their first year of medical studies at an unnamed Edinburgh university which has grudgingly admitted them but treats them with contempt. Chaperoned in sequestered classrooms, the women are mocked by male students and professors alike, but Sarah has it worse than most. As a debutante in London's smarter circles, Sarah was raped at a ball by the son of a lord, then blamed for the attack and banished to a sanatorium for treatment of her "promiscuity." Debut author Welsh lays it on thick in the opening chapters. Sarah's fellow female students shun her while her repressive aunt and uncle, with whom she lives, preach at her. She rarely encounters a man who doesn't smirk at her. A defter hand would evoke the pathos of Sarah's situation without lathering the reader in it. Eventually Sarah finds a friend, and the story finds its footing when Sarah recognizes a corpse in dissection class as a young prostitute she encountered in her work at a charitable clinic. Did the girl die by suicide, or was it murder? Sarah's investigation takes her to the houses of ill repute and opium dens of the less savory side of Edinburgh. Now the game's afoot! Welsh makes clever use of the conventions of the genre—Sarah has a dull, respectable suitor who the family hopes will lure her from her unsuitable pursuit of education and an irascible, brooding mentor who will reveal a secretly tender heart—while throwing in a twist informed by modern sensibilities. Damp, sooty, moralistic, and sinning Edinburgh is convincingly evoked. A coy reference at the story's conclusion to another Scottish medical detective hints that this novel may be the first in a series. A gritty detective story as unflinching as its heroine, rich in well-researched period detail.
