Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Beautiful Poison | 2017 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
| 2 | The November Girl | 2017 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
| 3 | The Impossible Girl | 2018 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
| 4 | Toxic | 2018 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
| 5 | Opium and Absinthe | 2020 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
| 6 | The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding | 2022 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
| 7 | K-Jane | 2025 | Lydia Kang | Buy |
These are Lydia Kang’s standalone novels, published between 2017 and 2025. While they are not connected to each other, most share a common thread: historical settings with medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting Kang’s career as a practicing physician.
A Beautiful Poison (2017) is set in 1918 New York during the flu pandemic and involves a series of mysterious poisonings. The Impossible Girl (2018) follows a girl who secretly sells cadavers to medical schools in 1850s Manhattan. Opium and Absinthe (2020) is a Gilded Age mystery where a young socialite recovering from a laudanum addiction investigates attacks that mirror Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding (2022) takes place during World War II and involves a mysterious woman with secrets.
The November Girl (2017) and Toxic (2018) lean more toward YA, while K-Jane (2025) is her most recent release. Each novel can be read on its own, so readers can start with whichever historical period or premise interests them most.