Tea & Alchemy
In 1854 Cornwall, Mina Penrose takes comfort in her job at The Magpie, the village tearoom. Her days are spent away from the loneliness of the home she shares with her miner brother, Jack, until Mina begins to see shapes in the tea leaves – shapes that appear to foretell the fate of the customer. After interpreting a bad omen in a man’s leaves, Mina finds his murdered body. The mystery that surrounds his attack lures Mina toward an occupant of Roche Rock, the recluse Harker Tregarrick.
As Mina seeks to understand the unusual circumstances of the murder, she must uncover local lore – the mystery surrounding the master of Roche Rock and the practice of tasseography – while avoiding conflict with her brother. Harker Tregarrick is drawn to Mina, but knows that any contact between them comes at great risk. Despite his efforts to keep Mina at a distance and take refuge in his alchemical studies, he is forced to intervene when she is attacked.
Tea & Alchemy has the flavor of a gothic historical mystery but contains strong fantasy elements. The forays into supernatural beings and the complex history surrounding their existence could remove readers from the historical setting altogether, if not for the detailed and descriptive writing that keeps us tied to 19th-century Cornwall. However, I wouldn’t recommend this book for the traditional historical fiction reader. While the setting is in the past, the storyline falls toward vampire romance tropes. For those that are open to genre-shifting historical fiction, Tea & Alchemy is an entertaining read.
