I have to say, I really do like T. Kingfisher’s newer writing. I think she still has moments of humor in her books, but this and the last one, “A Sorceress Comes to Call” feels more grown-up in some way I can’t name. I thought that parts of this book seemed to be taking on some of the best parts of the “Universe of the White Rat” but set in a different world/place. There are saints here with all of the gods run over eons ago. I wish we could get a second book starring Healer Anja, but I doubt we get it. I did love though Kingfisher’s take on Snow White and Rose Red and loved the ending. I think some people may think that parts of the book run a bit slow (and yeah there was some of that) but not enough to ruin my enjoyment.
“Hemlock & Silver” follows Healer Anja as she is called upon by her King to figure out if his daughter Snow is being poisoned. Anja knows a lot about poison and knows that most of the time, something else is going on that is making the sufferer sick. She worries that if she gets the diagnosis wrong or fails to save the King’s daughter, she and her family may come out the worse for it. Anja though travels with the King and his entourage to his daughter Snow and finds something stranger than poison.
I loved Anja. I loved the way her mind works and how she goes about testing poison. She tries to figure things out scientifically and then just embraces that she is not going to be able to figure things out without just agreeing that things she can’t see like “magic” may be afoot. She was hilarious at times I thought. Her growing friendship with a cat and with one of her bodyguards was enjoyable too.
There are many other characters in this one and I thought that Kingfisher did a great job with them all. I liked the tweaks to the story of Snow White and Rose Red and even the Evil Queen motif too.
The main plot of the book, who is poisoning Snow and why takes a while to get figured out, but once you do, it still takes a while to resolved. No complaints from me about that, I think sometimes books rush way too fast to get to an end. I liked that we still had another mystery to tie up in the end too.