Book Review: The Apothecary's Curse
The Apothecary's Curse. Barbara Barnett. Pyr Books: October 11, 2016, Trade Paperback and Kindle, 340 pages.
Reviewed by Andrew Reynolds.
Two men share a secret that they struggle to keep hidden from the rest of the world. Then an unfortunate accident and a persistent young woman threaten to reveal it.
Humans have probably thought about immortality, about cheating death forever, since they first started thinking. However, how many people have put serious thought into what being immortal would mean, especially if one were not able to pass on that gift to others? What would it be like to watch your friends, your family, all the people you love and care about, die? How would it feel to see your society crumble and fade away? Worse, because there always would be people who desire eternal life enough to ignore any laws or taboos society might place in their way, you would be hunted, always hiding your condition.
Barbara Barnett has taken this conundrum as the central theme of her latest novel, The Apothecary's Curse. Set in London during the reign of Victoria and today’s Chicago, her story introduces us to two men whose fates are joined by what they see as their shared curse of immortality. One is Simon Bell, successful physician and scion of a wealthy and well-connected family of doctors. The other is Gaelan Erceldoune, an apothecary living in one of London's poorer neighborhoods. Bell seeks a cure for his wife's cancer, and approaches Erceldoune, whose reputation as a purveyor of cures for illnesses is known even in Bell's lofty circles. But Erceldoune is a man with a secret. He is over 150 years old and is immortal, the result of an attempt to cure himself of the plague in 16th Century Edinburgh and a cure compounded from a book supposedly given to his ancestor by Airmid, the Gaelic goddess of healing. Erceldoune reluctantly produces a potion he believes will cure the cancer, which it does, but the cure also kills the patient. Bell, distraught over the loss of his wife, consumes the remaining potion, thinking it deadly poison. Instead, he too is rendered immortal.
Together, the two men begin a journey to undo the curse placed on both of them. Their journey ends in the present-day metropolis of Chicago. When one of them suffers what would otherwise be a fatal accident, an accident witnessed by many onlookers and their cellphones, their secret lives are threatened. Their rescue comes in the form of a young English woman with a connection to their past lives who hears of the “miracle” of survival and investigates.
Ms. Barnett tells an excellent story, worth reading even if it does not fit into a neat genre category. It explores all the classic themes: love and loss, friendship and fidelity, and the deep connections that can seem to stretch across the vast gulf of time. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone who enjoys a good story.