Publisher's Synopsis
It is 1718 and, in a parish near Newcastle, Eliza Tally, a girl of sixteen, embarks on a love affair that will prove her undoing. When her lover casts her off, she is forced to travel to London. There she takes up a position in the house of an apothecary, Grayson Black, whom she trusts to salvage what remains of her reputation. Black, however, has a quite different plan in mind. Shunned for years by the men of science, the apothecary is convinced that he is finally about to achieve the fame and success he thinks he deserves. And it is Eliza he is determined to exploit to realise his long-held ambitions, with consequences that are terrifying for all who inhabit the apothecary's house.
