In present day, a woman finds herself alone in London on what was meant to be a 10-year anniversary gift wading through the murky water of the Thames and examining a curious blue vial.

In 1791, a 12-year-old girl commits a murder and looks for a magical solution to rid her of the ghost that haunts her in its aftermath.

Although these storylines are separated by nearly two centuries, they are inextricably wound together by burdens women share and perhaps by fate itself.

In her debut novel, THE LOST APOTHECARY, Sarah Penner brews a perfectly measured mixture of feminism, friendship and vengeance. With spellbinding prose and meticulous plotting, she ferments the power of female alliances in a world built to give men every advantage at the expense of the women in their lives.

"Sarah Penner brews a perfectly measured mixture of feminism, friendship and vengeance."

Nestled into one of London’s Back Alleys, disguised behind the back wall of an old grain room, is an apothecary’s shop. However, this particular apothecary is unlike any other. Hidden from the prying gaze of men, this apothecary serves women alone.

Penner splits her novel into chapters narrated by three characters as they venture out from the oppressive heel of the patriarchy.

Nella, the apothecary, lives in the tragic wake of both her mother’s death and her lover’s betrayal. From the shadows of her hidden shop, she continues her mother’s legacy by dispensing elixirs for fertility and salves to soothe monthly aches. But that’s not all. Between flasks of potions meant to soothe and heal, Nella hides tinctures of deadly herbs to take care of other womanly ailments: unfaithful husbands, aggressive employers, duplicitous brothers.

Eliza Fanning is the 12-year-old maidservant of one of Nella’s clients. After running a sinister errand for her mistress, she becomes enraptured by Nella’s world and insists on becoming a part of it as an apprentice. Young and naive, Eliza seeks to unburden herself of a ghost while coping with her burgeoning womanhood.

Finally, Caroline Parcewell travels to London after stumbling upon evidence of her husband’s infidelity. A derailed historian who forfeited her dreams of Cambridge for the sake of her marriage, Caroline begins to rediscover her lost love upon finding an apothecary’s vial in the mud of the Thames River. With the help of Gaynor, an archivist at the British Library, Caroline finds herself propelled to unearth the vial’s hidden past --- and perhaps carve out a new future for herself in the process.

If you are looking for likable male characters, or even male characters with a couple of redeeming qualities, look elsewhere. From the controlling James to the lascivious Mr. Amwell to the conniving Frederick, just about every man in this novel is painted as a caricature of the patriarchy against whom our heroines must rebel in order to be free.

Written with the collective strength of women reclaiming their histories and their futures, THE LOST APOTHECARY asks readers what they might be willing to do to live unencumbered, and if that might not include a sprinkle of crushed nux vomica or a spoonful of arsenic.