Apothecary's apprentice Christopher (The Blackthorn Key) is tapped by traveling healer Galen to help produce a plague "cure." Christopher doubts the cure's authenticity and soon uncovers a conspiracy with Galen at the center. Though Sands portrays epidemic-stricken 1665 London as rampant with panic and superstition, Christopher's first-person narration, full of curiosity and humor, makes this fast-paced historical adventure fairly light. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In seventeenth-century London, no disease is more dreaded or more dreadful than the Black Death, which claims thousands of victims each day. An ominous prophet in a bird-faced mask is having surprising luck at predicting who will die next, and quacks are peddling expensive fake cures all over the streets of the city. The most recent outbreak could not come at a worse time for young orphan Christopher Rowe, who recently inherited an apothecary shop upon the death of Gabriel Blackthorn, his good master. But in the quarantine, Christopher cannot get permission to reopen the shop. How will he survive? Well, Blackthorn has left a new series of challenging puzzles that may lead his young apprentice to a fortune . . . or to the fiercely sought cure for the plague. In this exciting sequel to the well-received The Blackthorn Key (2015), Sands once again mixes history, science, chemistry, and medicine to create a story that will draw in a broad audience of children.--Zeitlin Cooke, Ariel Copyright 2016 Booklist