Plagued by rumors that she poisoned her fiancé, Lucinda Bromley manages to live on the fringes of polite society. She tends her beloved plants and occasionally consults on a murder investigation, for the notorious botanist can detect almost any type of poison. But the murder of a lord has Lucinda shaken. She has detected a poison containing a very rare species of fern. So rare that the only specimen in England was in her conservatory - until it was...

"In financial straits and on a sure path to spinsterhood, Venetia Milton thought her stay at the remote, ramshackle Arcane House, far from society's prying eyes, would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to engineer her own ravishment. She was there to photograph the relics and artifacts collected by a highly secretive organization, founded two centuries earlier by an eccentric alchemist. And the alchemist's descendant - her employer, Mr. Gabriel...

More than three centuries ago, Nicholas Winters irrevocably altered his genetic makeup in an obsessionfueled competition with alchemist and Arcane Society founder Sylvester Jones. Driven to control their psychic abilities, each man's decision has reverberated throughout the family line, rewarding some with powers beyond their wildest dreams, and cursing others to a life filled with madness and hallucinations. Jack Winters, descendant of Nicholas,...