The Perfect Poison
by Amanda QuickBook 6 of Arcane Society
~ Goodreads ~
Rating: 4.0 Stars
Plagued by rumors that she poisoned her fiancé, Lucinda Bromley manages to live on the fringes of polite society, tending her beloved plants—and occasionally consulting on a murder investigation. For the notorious botanist possesses a unique talent: she can detect almost any type of poison, especially ones that have their origins in the botanical kingdom.
But the death of a lord has shaken Lucinda to her core. At the murder scene, she picks up traces of a poison containing a very rare species of fern. So rare, in fact, that only one specimen exists in all of England—and it was stolen from her conservatory just last month. To keep her name out of the investigation and to find the murderer, Lucinda hires a fellow Arcane Society member. Caleb Jones runs a psychical investigation agency. A descendant of the founder of the Society, he is very good at protecting its secrets—and frighteningly good getting at the truth. Immediately, Lucinda senses both a raw power and undeniable intensity in the imposing man.
But as a nearly overwhelming desire blooms between Caleb and Lucinda, they are drawn into the dark heart of a deadly conspiracy that can be traced to the early days of the Arcane Society—and to a legacy of madness that could plunge Caleb into the depths of his own tortured soul…
But the death of a lord has shaken Lucinda to her core. At the murder scene, she picks up traces of a poison containing a very rare species of fern. So rare, in fact, that only one specimen exists in all of England—and it was stolen from her conservatory just last month. To keep her name out of the investigation and to find the murderer, Lucinda hires a fellow Arcane Society member. Caleb Jones runs a psychical investigation agency. A descendant of the founder of the Society, he is very good at protecting its secrets—and frighteningly good getting at the truth. Immediately, Lucinda senses both a raw power and undeniable intensity in the imposing man.
But as a nearly overwhelming desire blooms between Caleb and Lucinda, they are drawn into the dark heart of a deadly conspiracy that can be traced to the early days of the Arcane Society—and to a legacy of madness that could plunge Caleb into the depths of his own tortured soul…
The Perfect Poison is probably the first historical in Jayne Ann Krentz's Arcane Society that I actually, really, really liked. For whatever reason, I'm not entirely certain, since it doesn't stray far from the story lines of the previous two historical installments in this series. Could be that, while I didn't really have any problem with the previous two books' characters, I didn't really care for them all that much either--I think it was the romances that didn't do it for me, even though I did like the characters as individuals. This made them kind of 'meh' books.
But in this installment, the characters were great and I DID find that I really liked both. Caleb Jones was not the typical, broody, alpha lord type, and he had a few moments that might have endeared him to me. Lucinda was the typical strong, and independent, and eccentric heroine, but I also loved how readily she just stands up to Caleb in spite of his intimidating glowering all the time.
And also, the romance actually developed a little bit more ideally--it was definitely not a typical Amanda Quick formula, I'll give it that.
Meanwhile, the story line felt more substantial, rather than just being another add-on to the ongoing background conflict between the Arcane Society and that mysterious, secret cabal of rogue psychics.
As per usual, the book was addictive and easy to read; the side characters were also great. And aside from some typical romance cliches here and there, I really didn't have a whole lot of objections pertaining to this book.
I DO like how we continue to see certain parallels between the contemporary books in this series, as well as connections to JAK's futuristic Harmony series. It just gets me all excited!
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I read and donated 100 pages from this book to the Prison Library.
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