Historical Fiction Book Review: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

 ´History doesn´t record the intricacies of women´s relationships´.

As a person who is often charmed by beautiful covers, I may say that The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner has without a hint of doubt a very beautiful visual appearance. I had access to the paperback and there is nothing special about the lettering or the interior design, but the cover is standing out by its beautiful simplicity.

Now, let´s move a bit further to the book itself. I may confess that I am more nuanced and conflicted about the topic and particularly its approach.

The Lost Apothecary is a told mostly through women voices. There are three women whose stories are creating fragments of a bigger story set in London 200 years ago: Nella who inherited an apothecary that will be used for creating deadly poisons aimed particularly at unfaithful men, Eliza, her short-time 12-year old accidental apprentice and the American Caroline who´s about to break free from her unfulfilled family life, particularly after discovering her 10-year husband unfaithfullness. 

While on a random tour, Caroline discovers a jar with some old inscriptions that will lead her to the stories of Nella and Eliza. As on purpose, hoping that one day history will be written differently, taking into account the small people too, Nella is keeping a record of the different potions and the clients. Through her historical investigations - that are taking place within a couple of days only - Caroline can find a couple of puzzle missing and even trace the two women, although the latest records - media articles - mention their death, while being followed by local police forced, following the revelation of their deadly business.

The idea of unearthing individual stories of nameless people is excellent and the episoded placed at the end of the 18th century are well crafted. However, once the action is taking place in our times, the inaccuracies abound. As someone familiar with historical research, finding so many relevant details of a story mentioned in maximum two articles, in just a couple of days is largely impossible. 

Another problem I had with the storyline has to do, again, with the present-time situation. Caroline seems to react as she knows already the information shared by the women from the 18th century, which is largely unlikely. She takes for granted information that are known to the reader but are not supposed to be known by her. 

Caroline´s personal details and her relationship with her husband are often presented in a hurry which steal from the consistency of the characters´ personality. Last but not least, I can understand her hurry to take off from her previous life, but there may be a time - at least couple of days - between submitting your application to Cambridge and being accepted. In the book, she sent the application and overnight was accepted which is again, less likely to happen in real academic life.

Despite my observations and criticism, The Lost Apothecary has some generous good ideas about women solidarity and women in history. It´s just my fault - not the first, probably not the last - for being disappointed of not reading a book at least at the same standard with its cover. Childish, superficial me...

Rating: 2.5 stars