Customer Reviews

Alchemy

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...past the strangely lethargic modern and Tudor heroines. What could've been two absorbing stories are dragged down by the primary characters, who never seem to progress to maturity, self-insight, nor motivation to take charge of their own lives. Their shared static quality holds back the momentum of the entire book.

Solicitor, Jade Green, accepts a case from a former lecturer at a small, private university from which he was sacked for going against the religious tenets of the Dean. The Professor feels that there was more to his sacking than meets the eye and that greed and corruption are more likely to be the answer than any invented reasons. He has a 17th century manuscript which purports to be that of a young trainee physician who impersonates a man because of the distrust of women in any other role than that of the traditional wife and mother. Jade's story and that of her 17th century counterpart, runs along parallel lines, with both yong women showing decided leanings towards lesbianism, although the story doesn't go into any great detail about their sex lives. The recipes, or receipts as they are called in earlier times, are fascinating and lead one to wonder whether they killed more than they cured, and the utter helplessness of women in those times was apalling when it only took the word of a man, any man, to condemn them out of hand to a life in jail or worse. I have long given up any romantic ideas about living in earlier times, and am only too grateful to be here in the 21st century.