The Perfect Poison: Number 6 in series (Arcane Society, #6)

by Amanda Quick

Plagued by rumours that she poisoned her fiance, 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. 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 - stolen from her conservatory just last month. To keep her name out of the investigation, and to find the murderer, Lucinda hires fellow Arcane Society member, Caleb Jones. As a nearly overwhelming desire blooms between them, they are drawn into 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...

• ISBN10: 0749909153
• ISBN13: 9780749909154
• Publish Date: 14 May 2009 (first published 1 April 2009)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 11 August 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Lucinda Bromley has a rare talent, she can detect almost any kind of poison. Her reputation is soiled by the fact that her finance died from what appeared to be poisoning. However her skills are used by the police. In the latest case she discovers that the poisoning subject was poisoned by a recently stolen fern from her collection. She hires Caleb Jones, part of a psychical investigation agency, to investigate for her. He can see patterns and sense when things ar going well in an investigation. He also fears that he's going mad, as has happened to his ancestors. They're attracted but can their fears keep them apart.

I enjoyed the read, the two of them were interesting characters and enjoyable. There were moments when things didn't quite work but most of the story kept me well engaged.

[MurderByDeath]

I listened to this on Audio and found it to be a very good book. The woman who did the voices struggles with the male parts, but otherwise was excellent. I really didn't feel like this was a romance - it was 9 CD's long and there were only 2 'love' scenes and this takes place in Victorian England, so...not really a romance in my book. But the story was intriguing and I enjoyed the paranormal aspects.