cover image The Perfect Poison

The Perfect Poison

Amanda Quick, . . Putnam, $24.95 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-399-15580-2

Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) delivers her reliable blend of sex and suspense in her latest Arcane Society novel. In Victorian London, spinster botanist and psychic Lucinda Bromley meets her match in Caleb Jones, a member of the Arcane Society and descendant of an alchemist family that makes him “the stuff of myth and legend.” Together, this paranormal pair of snoops sets out to track down a thief who made off with a dangerous plant implicated in the death of a wealthy lord, but wind up uncovering a sinister secret order. Quick invents two dazzling 19th-century sleuths who combine paranormal prowess and raw sexual heat. But if they excel at fooling Mother Nature, it's their all too human nature that brings this uncommon Victorian duo to life. (Apr.)