The Lost Boys of London — Mary Lawrence

In Mary Lawrence's fifth Bianca Goddard Mystery set in the twilight years of Henry VIII's campaign, the alchemist's daughter uses her skills to aid the living, and help seek justice for the dead.

In the twilight years of Henry VIII's reign, alchemist's daughter Bianca Goddard uses her skills to aid the living, and help seek justice for the dead...

While her husband fights the Scots on behalf of King Henry VIII, Bianca Goddard earns her coin by concocting medicines that offer relief to London''s sick. Some unfortunates, however, are beyond any remedies she can provide--like the young boy discovered hanging from a church dripstone. Examining the body, Bianca finds a rosary twisted around the child's neck. A week later, another boy is found dead at a different church. When Fisk, the impish little son of Bianca's acquaintance, goes missing, she fears he may become the third victim...

There are many villains who would prey on wayward, penniless boys. But Bianca suspects the killings are not brutal acts of impulse, but something far more calculated. In her room of Medicinals and Physickes she examines the sole piece of evidence: a sweet-smelling, dark-stained cloth. If Bianca can unravel its secret, reputations and lives will be saved. But the expected hour of the next murder is approaching, and a single misstep may mean another boy is lost forever...