In 1859, ex-smuggler Merrick Tremain lies in his sprawling estate in Cornwall recovering from a serious injury. Strange things begin to happen, he sees trees explode and statues begin to move, his brother insists Merrick is losing his mind. Eager to get away from home Merrick excepts a job from the East India Company, where he will travel to the Amazon to obtain quinine. Merrick knows this is an insane idea, he can barely walk, but he needs to get away and prove that he is not going mad. In a tiny town in the Amazon things get even worse. There is a line in the sand made of salt and anyone who crosses it is killed by something living in the forest. Merrick begins to wonder if he truly is losing his mind but desperate to prove there is something else going on, he sets out to discover what happened to the expeditions that came before him and is particularly intrigued by the young priest Raphael who claims to have known Merrick’s grandfather in the same tiny Amazonian town decades before.

Merrick Tremayne has been stuck in his brother's home after a smuggling of goods on behalf of the East India Company went wrong, his leg now permanently crippled. In order to escape a life of drudgery and the growing fear of others that he may have gone mad, Merrick sets off to Peru to find quinine - one of the main ingredients in treating malaria - on behalf of the new India Office, despite several unsuccessful expedition Aries before him. Ending up in the Andean village of New Bethlehem where his father had been born, Merrick becomes enshrouded by local myths and magics, and develops a friendship-like relationship with the young priest Raphaels whose own history and life are mysteries.

I did not expect to like this book as much as I ultimately did. The work is beautifully written and everything is stunningly described, but I'm not usually one for more adventure-type stories that seem like they border the edge of imperialism. However, I thoroughly enjoyed The Bedlam Stacks and found it compellingly at that edge of realism and fantasy. The characters were carefully wrought; the setting mystical and enthralling; and the pace steady but not slow. A complex and imaginative look at the relationship between mysticism and indigenous populations and modernity and how those all intertwine, it is a masterful piece and a much recommended read (although the pace and the more ambiguous ending may not be for everyone!).

Thanks to the publisher for an advance digital copy in exchange for a fair review!