“The Perfect Poison” by Amanda Quick

“The Perfect Poison” by Amanda Quick
2009, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN: 978-0-399-15580-2

“The Perfect Poison” by Amanda Quick. Brisk. Perky. Lovely psychic stuff. Mystery. Love with the unlikeliest of people. Handsome and yet not too handsome, beautiful and yet not the fashion at all. These are all elements of the stories by Amanda Quick. But, when she signs her name as Amanda you’ve got a mystery set in the 1800’s.

Lucinda Bromley has the ability to be able to detect poison. She occasionally helps the police with cases, but she herself is viewed with horror by polite society. This is because her father was accused of killing his business partner and then committing suicide. Then, her fiancé was poisoned and it was commonly felt that she did the poisoning. She didn’t do the dastardly deed, but that is beside the point. Society thinks she did.

The bad trouble starts when she detects a very rare fern stolen from her greenhouse several months earlier had been used in a poison used to kill someone in high society. She told the police officer she works with that the person had been poisoned. What she didn’t tell him was that she suspected that the poison might have been made from her stolen fern.

Lucinda went to Jones Psychic Detective Agency and hired Caleb Jones to help her track down her fern and then to find a murderer. When Lucinda and Caleb meet the sparks begin to fly.

The psychic stuff comes in with a bunch of stories called The Arcane Society Novels. I love when the heroine doesn’t understand the subtleties just like they can often fly by me occasionally. Still, at the age of 54, I can learn from these characters on how to bounce back with aplomb from a faux paus.

It’s not just a story. It’s a box of chocolates.