The Tao of Poison

A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent anti-government rebellion.

Polyandry—one or more males moving in and sharing the wife’s bed with her husband’s consent in exchange for money or labor—was common among the impoverished in Imperial China, though illegal, and the polyandrous Yan family in rural Shaanxi Province take in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family’s rumored polyandry and extorts sex from their beautiful 17-year-old daughter, Qiezi. Having grown up in the mountains, Qiezi has a preternatural knowledge of botanical medicines. She’s also addicted to the psychoactive, poisonous datura flower, and the toxins in her system are fatal to the constable. Now on the run as a murder suspect, she leaves a trail of sexual carnage wherever she goes. But a larger cataclysm awaits her when she gets caught up in the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804), which caused the deaths of 200,000 rebels, government troops, and civilians. Picaresque action, dark humor, and irony unfold in this visceral and cinematic novel.