Circe meets The Lost Apothecary in the first book of this historical fantasy duology featuring Ancient Rome's most infamous poisoner who changed the course of history to save the woman she loved.
Born in the ancient region of Gaul, Locusta is the last of her kind - a Druid whose communion with the spirit world grants her the dangerous gift of identifying and wielding deadly substances. When Roman soldiers attack her home and slaughter her mother, Locusta is enslaved, taken to the heart of the empire where political plots abound and death commands a high price. Guided by Arawn, the god of death, she learns to survive within the brutal world of ancient Rome.
Her strange talents catch the attention of the Roman elite, and she becomes ensnared in a double life - poisoner for the cunning Antonia Augusta and lady-in-waiting to Livia, the Emperor's ambitious cousin. As Locusta plants the seeds of revenge against those who destroyed her home, her connection with Livia deepens into a forbidden romance that threatens them both. Amidst danger and deceit, Locusta's poisons become their only protection against the increasingly unstable Emperor Caligula and the enemies lurking in every shadow.
Locusta reimagines the rise of one of history's most complex women through a lens of myth, power and feminine rage.
