The Memory Bottle

Bristling with the grime and grit of Victorian London, The Memory Bottle is The Ruby in the Smoke meets The Lie Tree: a propulsive, heart-in-throat mystery, with unforgettable characters and told in confident, classic prose.

The year is 1890, and 15-year-old Prudence is alone, distraught and baffled. Who was the threatening man bundling her mother onto a train? Why didn’t she recognise Prue, her beloved only child? And how is the incident related to her mother’s latest book of eerily beautiful illustrations of other people’s dreams?

Rescued by a kindly bookseller, Mr Batorska, and his rakishly charming errand boy, Prue and her unlikely allies throw themselves into investigating the mystery. Dark whispers of tapping – a new fad for removing and bottling unsavoury memories – lead them on a chase through townhouses and slums, dockyards and insane asylums, sewers and séances. Each new clue tangles them tighter in a web of intrigue that seems to stretch to the highest echelons of London society…and reveals troubling connections to Mr Batorska himself.

Because as Prue searches for her mother, someone is searching for Prue. Someone sinister, ruthless, and extremely powerful. And if they get their hands on her, she’ll forget her mother, her friends, and even herself.

Blurb from David Higham Associates Ltd.
Literary and Film Agents
https://davidhigham.co.uk