The Bedlam Stacks

By Natasha Pulley

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Publisher:
Publication Date:
ISBN: 9781408878446
Themes: historical Supernatural Mythology

Preface

Merrick Treymayne is feeling stifled and unwanted since moving back to his family home in Cornwall with his curmudgeonly brother Charles. As a former smuggler for the East India Company Merrick sustained an injury to his leg which left him needing a cane.

So, when his old friend Clem arrives to convince him to come on an expedition to Peru. Merrick takes some convincing. Clem and the East India Company want Merrick to help them take cuttings from the Cinchona tree in order to get quinine, a substance needed in the cure for malaria. The locals want to maintain the monopoly on their trees and they aren’t happy with foreigners trying to take their product away.

Those who have arrived in Peru on previous expeditions to gather this precious resource haven’t made it out of Peru alive. Knowing this, Merrick knows it is madness for him to try where others have failed, especially with his injured leg. All that awaits him in Cornwall is a fractious relationship with his brother who thinks Merrick is slowly descending into madness.

On arriving in Bedlam Merrick and Clem are surprised by the level of superstition among the locals. The newcomers are warned not to cross the salt lined boundary into the forest but with the time sensitivity of their mission will they listen.

The longer they stay in the village the more fascinated Merrick becomes with the strange stone statues that line the village and almost seem to be alive. How do they work? And why does the young priest Raphael seem to know Merrick’s grandfather even though he visited Peru decades earlier.