Welcome to the web page of historical fiction writer
Elaine Thomson / E.S. Thomson
Greetings, and welcome! I am Elaine Thomson (E.S. Thomson), writer of historical crime fiction and supernatural fiction. Originally from Ormskirk in Lancashire, I have been in Edinburgh for forty years now, and consider myself to be an honorary Scot. As E.S. Thomson I have put my PhD in the history of medicine to good use and written six best-selling medical-historical crime novels, all featuring renegade apothecary Jem Flockhart and her loyal friend, architect Will Quartermain. Follow their adventures across the 1850s medical landscape as they solve the most dastardly crimes. Hospitals, sewers, asylums, anatomy schools – there’s something for everyone! The Jem Flockhart books are:- 1.)BELOVED POISON. 2.) DARK ASYLUM. 3.) THE BLOOD. 4.) SURGEONS’ HALL. 5.) NIGHTSHADE. and 6.) UNDERGROUND. You can read them in any order, though I recommend the one set out here. There’s more information about them, and pictures of their lovely covers, on the ‘books’ page of this website.
More recently, I decided to take a break from the horrors of mid nineteenth-century medical London and try something else. I’d wanted to write a ghost story for a long time, and a University research trip to Caithness in the far north of Scotland gave me all the inspiration I needed. The most recent of these books, written under the name Elaine Thomson, is WITCHWOOD: A SPRINGTIME GHOST STORY. It’s published by Sphere and is due out in April 2027 but available for pre-order. It’s the third in a quartet of Scottish ghost stories, each set at a supernatural turning point in the year – Samhain, midsummer, Imbolc (early spring), and midwinter. It follows SALTWATER: A MIDSUMMER GHOST STORY (Sphere, June 2026), and HAWTHORN: A SCOTTISH GHOST STORY (Sphere, Sept. 2025). The midwinter book is currently under construction. All of them draw inspiration from the Scottish landscape, as well as the myths and folklore of that beautiful country. I’ve had a lot of fun writing them.
My work has been shortlisted for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award, the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award, the Saltire First Book Award, and long-listed for the CWA Historical Dagger Award.
