When Christopher's master becomes another victim of the plot, Christopher is determined to find the killers. Three of the five murders were apothecaries. Recently, murders have been taking place in London, leaving victims butchered, slit at the stomach, and left to bleed out. He can prepare a solution with madapple seeds that can kill a grown man in minutes. He can mix gunpowder from saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. He knows how to mix up Venice Treacle, a snake bite antidote, from sixty-four different ingredients. Ever since he was rescued from the Cripplegate Orphanage, he has been learning how to use ingredients to create remedies, cures, and poisons. The murders grow closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop…until Christopher is torn from his home with only a cryptic message and a warning from his master: “Tell no one what I’ve given you.”Īided by his best friend, Tom, Christopher must race to decipher his master’s message-and follow a trail of deceit toward an unearthly secret with the power to tear the world apart.Ĭhristopher is an apprentice to an apothecary, Benedict Blackthorn. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he’s learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the power to tear the world apart.įollowing a series of murders, an apothecary’s apprentice must solve puzzles and decipher codes in pursuit of a secret that could destroy the world in this suspenseful debut novel.Ĭhristopher Rowe, apprentice to Master Apothecary Benedict Blackthorn, is learning all his master’s secrets-like how to decipher complex codes and puzzles, and how to transform simple ingredients into powerful medicines, potions, and weapons.Ĭhristopher’s beloved master guides him with a firm, steady hand-a confidence even more vital as Christopher learns of a mysterious cult preying on London’s apothecaries.

But when a mysterious cult begins to prey on London’s apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop. 'Tell no one what I've given you.' Until he got that cryptic warning, Christopher Rowe was happy, learning how to solve complex codes and puzzles and creating powerful medicines, potions, and weapons as an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn-with maybe an explosion or two along the way.

2.4.1 Christopher Visits the Apothecaries' Hall.

2.4 The Visitation of Mary (May 31th, 1665).

2.3.2 Christopher Finds Master Benedict.

2.3 The Feast of the Burning of Joan of Arc, Heretic (May 30th, 1665).

The blackthorn key series