Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Lost Apothecary
Sarah Penner
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Lost Apothecary
Sarah Penner
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Lost Apothecary, by Sarah Penner, is the story of many women who change history and the present. In 1791 Nella reads a letter and recalls her mother who openly dispensed tinctures to cure and soothe, without need to hide. Now Nella uses these potions that cunning women use on their awful husbands. She will add another name to that list.
Caroline walks around London without her husband James on their tenth anniversary trip. A man invites her to go mudlarking in the Old Victorian manner. She’d always been interested in Victorian things, though James wanted only to rise to the top of his corporate ladder in Connecticut. She decides to do what she truly wants. James’ secret influences her.
A young girl of twelve, Eliza Fanning comes into Nella’s shop. She’s the one who wrote the letter to Nella requesting a potion for her master’s breakfast. She and her mistress want to kill him.
Bachelor Alf takes Caroline in hand as he shows her items from as far back as the Roman era, such as a clay pipe stuffed with tobacco leaves. She’s thrilled, forgets the photo of black bikini underpants on her husband’s phone.
Nella describes to Eliza the poison hidden in an egg. When Nella’s mother died, Nella was heartbroken but Frederick came and saved her. Nella writes the name of the next victim in her ledger: Thompson Amwell on account of Eliza Fanning. Eliza goes off with the egg nested in a jar.
Caroline, in the present day, finds a vial in the mud and wonders who placed it there centuries ago. Alf tells her to go to the library on the underground and to talk to Gaynor in the map department to find out more about the vial. Author Penner weaves Nella in the 1700s to Caroline in the present in an exciting pattern.
Eliza, formerly a farm girl, was sent to London by her mother as a way to be anything she wants. Eliza is employed by the Amwells immediately and learns to read and write as Mrs. Amwell’s tremor worsens. She is happy there until Mr. Amwell begins to notice her. Mrs. Amwell tells her to go to the apothecary shop as she prepares the eggs for their breakfast. Mr. Amwell strokes Eliza’s thigh.
Caroline boots her computer in her hotel room and brings up amazing information about “Bear Alley” close to her hotel. The vial she’d found had a bear etched on it. Was this related to Bear Alley? She learns in an e-mail that James is on his way to London and will be at the hotel at one o’clock.
Eliza sees Mr. Amwell get more and more ill as he retches and moans. When the doctor comes, Mrs. Amwell says this has happened before when he drinks. The two women sit by the fireplace and soon they hear that Mr. Amwell has passed away. Eliza finds blood between her legs and fears Mr. Amwell’s spirit has engulfed her. Nella receives another letter in the vegetable bin and she goes to the fields to gather beetles that will do the deed. When she returns to her shop, Eliza is there and says she’d like to work as her apprentice to learn how to do Nella’s magic. Nella refuses her and instead gives her a book that had been her mother’s, plus the address of a bookshop that sells other books of magic. When the next client comes, Nella asks Eliza to stay and help as her hands shake. Lady Clarence, sleek and well-gowned arrives at Nella’s to pick up her deadly beetles. When Nella hears it is to kill the husband’s mistress she refuses to give it to the Lady. She and Nella’s mother only use their skills to help women, not to kill them. Nella “accidentally” flings the vial of beetles into the fire making it worthless. If she doesn’t make more of the poison the next day, Lady Clarence will go to the authorities and report her death-causing business.
Caroline returns to the library to discuss Bear Alley and sees the map that shows it's where Caroline had seen the night before. This is a historical mystery that Caroline likes. She finds a document from the hospital that may have been a death bed confession referring to a killer from Bear Alley and the apothecary, as a friend to all women. Caroline feels more alive than she has in days because of her project to solve this mystery.
Eliza knows she can crush the beetles and be trusted to be quiet about it. She rewrites the names in the ledger so the names will not be erased from history and to preserve their memories, their worth. “Trust, then betrayal are the reasons one uses the poisons,” says Nella. She had trusted Frederick at one time when he proposed to her. But one night at dinner, he had slipped a potion into her meal that had killed her baby inside her. The next day he left, never to return. Nella had told the wife how to slip the poison to Frederick. That is how it began. Nella’s grief never went away in twenty years.
Caroline’s husband arrives at her hotel door, depressed and exhausted. She asks why he has ruined their marriage by an affair with some woman. James admits he’s been unhappy with his life for some time.
Eliza grinds the beatles with mortar and pestle into a find powder. She still fears Mr. Amwell’s spirit is with her and follows her. She finds the bookshop of magick books and Tom Pepper, the owner, tells her to let him know if it works. She wants to see him again. Lady Clarence is at Nella’s shop and tells Nella that her husband’s mistress had sipped the deadly potion and so had Lady Clarence’s husband. He was the one who had died. The vial had an address on it and Lady Clarence hid it away. Eliza had grabbed it from the back of the cupboard and there had been others with the words Bear Alley on them.
Caroline takes photos with her phone when she finds the back room, just as the batteries fail. When she returns to her hotel room, her husband James is there, sick as can be, vomiting blood, and she calls for an ambulance. Two officers come as well planning to arrest Caroline because her notebook tells about poisons to kill. Seems James has taken the medicine she prescribed into his mouth The librarian testifies that Caroline had been researching a lost apothecary.
Nella runs to the bridge over the Thames and Eliza realizes what she plans to do.
Gaynor gives Caroline a copy of an old newspaper that says “Apothecary killer jumps from bridge.” Is this the end of the story? Was it truly the end of the apothecary? Does Eliza return to the shop? Does Nella? Find this fascinating historical mystery on the mystery shelf of your local library and learn the surprising ending.
Caroline walks around London without her husband James on their tenth anniversary trip. A man invites her to go mudlarking in the Old Victorian manner. She’d always been interested in Victorian things, though James wanted only to rise to the top of his corporate ladder in Connecticut. She decides to do what she truly wants. James’ secret influences her.
A young girl of twelve, Eliza Fanning comes into Nella’s shop. She’s the one who wrote the letter to Nella requesting a potion for her master’s breakfast. She and her mistress want to kill him.
Bachelor Alf takes Caroline in hand as he shows her items from as far back as the Roman era, such as a clay pipe stuffed with tobacco leaves. She’s thrilled, forgets the photo of black bikini underpants on her husband’s phone.
Nella describes to Eliza the poison hidden in an egg. When Nella’s mother died, Nella was heartbroken but Frederick came and saved her. Nella writes the name of the next victim in her ledger: Thompson Amwell on account of Eliza Fanning. Eliza goes off with the egg nested in a jar.
Caroline, in the present day, finds a vial in the mud and wonders who placed it there centuries ago. Alf tells her to go to the library on the underground and to talk to Gaynor in the map department to find out more about the vial. Author Penner weaves Nella in the 1700s to Caroline in the present in an exciting pattern.
Eliza, formerly a farm girl, was sent to London by her mother as a way to be anything she wants. Eliza is employed by the Amwells immediately and learns to read and write as Mrs. Amwell’s tremor worsens. She is happy there until Mr. Amwell begins to notice her. Mrs. Amwell tells her to go to the apothecary shop as she prepares the eggs for their breakfast. Mr. Amwell strokes Eliza’s thigh.
Caroline boots her computer in her hotel room and brings up amazing information about “Bear Alley” close to her hotel. The vial she’d found had a bear etched on it. Was this related to Bear Alley? She learns in an e-mail that James is on his way to London and will be at the hotel at one o’clock.
Eliza sees Mr. Amwell get more and more ill as he retches and moans. When the doctor comes, Mrs. Amwell says this has happened before when he drinks. The two women sit by the fireplace and soon they hear that Mr. Amwell has passed away. Eliza finds blood between her legs and fears Mr. Amwell’s spirit has engulfed her. Nella receives another letter in the vegetable bin and she goes to the fields to gather beetles that will do the deed. When she returns to her shop, Eliza is there and says she’d like to work as her apprentice to learn how to do Nella’s magic. Nella refuses her and instead gives her a book that had been her mother’s, plus the address of a bookshop that sells other books of magic. When the next client comes, Nella asks Eliza to stay and help as her hands shake. Lady Clarence, sleek and well-gowned arrives at Nella’s to pick up her deadly beetles. When Nella hears it is to kill the husband’s mistress she refuses to give it to the Lady. She and Nella’s mother only use their skills to help women, not to kill them. Nella “accidentally” flings the vial of beetles into the fire making it worthless. If she doesn’t make more of the poison the next day, Lady Clarence will go to the authorities and report her death-causing business.
Caroline returns to the library to discuss Bear Alley and sees the map that shows it's where Caroline had seen the night before. This is a historical mystery that Caroline likes. She finds a document from the hospital that may have been a death bed confession referring to a killer from Bear Alley and the apothecary, as a friend to all women. Caroline feels more alive than she has in days because of her project to solve this mystery.
Eliza knows she can crush the beetles and be trusted to be quiet about it. She rewrites the names in the ledger so the names will not be erased from history and to preserve their memories, their worth. “Trust, then betrayal are the reasons one uses the poisons,” says Nella. She had trusted Frederick at one time when he proposed to her. But one night at dinner, he had slipped a potion into her meal that had killed her baby inside her. The next day he left, never to return. Nella had told the wife how to slip the poison to Frederick. That is how it began. Nella’s grief never went away in twenty years.
Caroline’s husband arrives at her hotel door, depressed and exhausted. She asks why he has ruined their marriage by an affair with some woman. James admits he’s been unhappy with his life for some time.
Eliza grinds the beatles with mortar and pestle into a find powder. She still fears Mr. Amwell’s spirit is with her and follows her. She finds the bookshop of magick books and Tom Pepper, the owner, tells her to let him know if it works. She wants to see him again. Lady Clarence is at Nella’s shop and tells Nella that her husband’s mistress had sipped the deadly potion and so had Lady Clarence’s husband. He was the one who had died. The vial had an address on it and Lady Clarence hid it away. Eliza had grabbed it from the back of the cupboard and there had been others with the words Bear Alley on them.
Caroline takes photos with her phone when she finds the back room, just as the batteries fail. When she returns to her hotel room, her husband James is there, sick as can be, vomiting blood, and she calls for an ambulance. Two officers come as well planning to arrest Caroline because her notebook tells about poisons to kill. Seems James has taken the medicine she prescribed into his mouth The librarian testifies that Caroline had been researching a lost apothecary.
Nella runs to the bridge over the Thames and Eliza realizes what she plans to do.
Gaynor gives Caroline a copy of an old newspaper that says “Apothecary killer jumps from bridge.” Is this the end of the story? Was it truly the end of the apothecary? Does Eliza return to the shop? Does Nella? Find this fascinating historical mystery on the mystery shelf of your local library and learn the surprising ending.