An astonishing historical novel set in the shadowy, magical forests of South America, which draws on the captivating world of the international bestseller The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
It would have been a lovely thing to believe in, if I could have believed in anything at all.
In 1860, Merrick Tremayne is recuperating at his family's crumbling Cornish estate as he struggles to recover from an injury procured on expedition in China. Dispirited by his inability to walk any futher than his father's old greenhouse, he is slowly coming round to his brother's suggestion that - after a life lived dangerously - he might want to consider a new path, into the clergy.
But when the East India Trading Company coerces Merrick in to agreeing to go on one final expedition to the holy town of Bedlam, a Peruvian settlement his family knows well, he finds himself thrown into another treacherous mission for Her Majesty, seeking valuable quinine from a rare Cinchona tree.
In Bedlam, nothing is as it seems. The Cinchona is located deep within a sacred forest where golden pollen furls in the air and mysterious statues built from ancient rock appear to move. Guided by the mysterious priest Raphael, who disappears for days on end into this shadowy realm, Merrick discovers a legacy left by his father and grandfather before him which will prove more valuable than the British Empire could ever have imagined.
