The Lost Apothecary is the perfect blend of present and past, twisted together like a swirly ice cream cone. Eighteenth-Century London is brought to the forefront when Caroline travels to present-day London to distance herself from her problems. A simple discovery during an unplanned adventure leads to an ever-evolving course of clues that solve a considerable number of two-hundred-year-old murder cases, the apothecary murders.
Sarah Penner’s writing knocked my socks off. I found this to be an unusual topic to write a story about and probably wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t a choice in the book of the month club that I was gifted. The gorgeous cover is what drew me to the book. Reading the summary made my decision easy.
Sarah’s mind must be a tangle of amazingness, as I don’t think I could keep the timelines between past and present, and their connections to each other straight while penning a book like this. It was exactly that that made me continue reading like a madwoman to finish it, curious as to what would happen.
I was attracted to the characters in both past and present London. Caroline is a strong lead character who deals with infidelity in a unique way. Nella, a character from the past, helped women who had been duped by their men. Her methods are questionable, but make for a thrilling read!
The Lost Apothecary includes mystery, infidelity, starting over, helping others, and the age-old issue of right and wrong. The ending is a spectacular merging of past and present that tells the reader exactly what happened to the apothecary murder victims. Scintillating to be sure!
