The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. A dark blue background with cream animals (two birds, two monkeys, two parrots, two spiders, two butterflies, two bees and two insects) and dark plants around the edges. There is text across the length of the book. From top to bottom it reads:
“From the bestselling author of” (in small white font)
“The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” (in slightly larger yellow capitals)
The title “The Bedlam Stacks” (in large white capitals)
A large picture of a lit lamp with gears in the glass.
The phrase “A Novel” directly below this (in small, yellow capitals)
The authors name “Natasha Pulley” below this (in slightly larger white capitals). /end]

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Content Warning:

• Death
• Genocide
• Gun Violence
• Racism
• Ableism
• Murder
• Injury Detail
• Colonisation

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Summary:

In 1859, ex–East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall with an injury that almost cost him his leg. When the India Office recruits him for an expedition to fetch quinine–essential for the treatment of malaria–from deep within Peru, he knows it’s a terrible idea; nearly every able-bodied expeditionary who’s made the attempt has died, and he can barely walk. But Merrick is eager to escape the strange events plaguing his family’s crumbling estate, so he sets off, against his better judgment, for the edge of the Amazon.

There he meets Raphael, a priest around whom the villagers spin unsettling stories of impossible disappearances, cursed woods, and living stone. Merrick must separate truth from fairy tale, and gradually he realizes that Raphael is the key to a legacy left by generations of Tremayne explorers before him, one which will prove more valuable than quinine, and far more dangerous.

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Notes:

This is technically a part of the “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” series, coming between the first two books, however it’s not a sequel. It features a character, apparently, who is in both books, but in a different story outside of the story of the main series.

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Archivist Comments:

I’ve marked this as a series because it’s part of the Watchmaker series, but also as “stand alone” because people have said it can be read on its own.

Also, I’m unsure on the relationship between the two characters. The book itself is tagged “LGBTQ”, and there are references to a queer relationship between them, but people have also referred to it as being purely queer-platonic. I’ll let you make your own judgement.

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