Review of Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Based on my two Bossy reads so far, T. Kingfisher writes my favorite kind of fantasy novel: a wonderfully oddball main protagonist, a strange adventure, a mystery to be solved, and simmering romance with No Swooning or Annoying Drama whatsoever. I loved this story about an expert in poisons, with banter and clever deduction in an imagined world.

In Hemlock & Silver, Anja is a healer who since her young cousin's preventable death has obsessively focused on learning about, combating, and teaching others about poisons. To determine antidotes and treatments, she must regularly ingest deadly substances, but duty calls.

She's somewhat of a loner, part of a beloved family, and a merchant's daughter, but she's plainly dressed, tall, work-driven, and uninterested in social niceties, so she spends her time exhaustively researching and trying to help those who have ingested a potentially harmful substance.

But when the king personally arrives at her workshop, desperate for help with his sole surviving daughter, who he suspects is being poisoned, Anja must not only navigate the ins and outs of royal customs, adjust her practical wardrobe, and leave her personal research behind to travel to the king's distant palace. She must also face a likely reality in which she cannot save the princess and will ultimately be held responsible for her death. But she'll bring her fearsome adder along in case she needs its venom...and she's also going to need someone to find a medium-sized rooster.

Her bodyguard is a surprisingly sympathetic strong, silent type (cue: simmering hints of romance with zero swooning and the promise of a perfect payoff at the end). So when things start seeming eerily strange in the remote palace and the images she glimpses in the home's many mirrors begin to seem to have lives of their own, she's got a trusted ally in trying to discover what the heck is going on.

I am allllll in on Kingfisher's novels. Everyone who recommended this author's work to me was correct, and I have no one to blame but myself for the delay in diving in.

Kingfisher imagines richly imagined fantasy worlds, and within them she slots fantastically imperfect and wondrous main protagonists whose thoughts, dialogue, motivations, and actions have me completely hooked. Romantic undercurrents are wonderful, and there is No Swooning or Ridiculousness. This is my fantasy sweet spot.

More Kingfisher and other Fantasy Novels

T. Kingfisher is also the author of many other novels. You can find my Bossy review of A Sorceress Comes to Call here and reviews of other fantasy titles here.