Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary's register. One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose-selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella's world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.
In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband's infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can't resist investigating, only to realize she's found a link to the unsolved "apothecary murders" that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline's life collides with Nella's and Eliza's in a stunning twist of fate-and not everyone will survive.
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She would come at daybreak - the woman whose letter I held in my hands, the woman whose name I did not yet know. 1, NELLA
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(@Legend_Times_, 2 March, 289 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 17 March, #Legend100)
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This is a new author for me. I fell in love with The Lost Apothecary, Nella, Eliza and Caroline within a few pages. I wanted to know all of their stories and how the past and present would come together. The book uses one of my favourite narrative structures, with chapters moving between 1791 when Nella and Eliza meet and events are set in motion that will change both of their lives forever and the present when Caroline stumbles across their secret and their story when revaluating her own life after discovering her husband's infidelity. I loved the way the author drip-feed's information and very slowly links the past to the present, urging you to read on to see how it all connects. The chapters set in 1791 were my favourite but I loved Caroline's story as well. The Lost Apothecary is a fantastic book. I really loved it.
