It's February 1952, and 14-year-old Janie Scott lives a normal life in California. But then strange men start following her home, and her family discovers that they are being followed by the American government, who thinks they might be communists. The Scotts are forced to move to London, and Janie doesn't know what to do, uprooted from everything she'd ever known and taken to a foreign city, enrolling at a school where she has to take Latin, a language she speaks not a word of. It seems like everyone hates her--the first student she met was Sarah Pennington, rich, privileged, and gorgeous, who keeps saying "This is Jane Scott from California," like the state is fictitious or something. The Latin teacher, Mr. Danby, is nice, though, and Janie feels a bit better knowing that there is a Russian kid at school, Sergei Shiskin, who's probably having an even worse time than she is. But during her first day at lunch, they have a bomb drill, and the only person who refuses to go under the cafeteria tables because he claims they will offer no protection is Benjamin Burrows, son of a local apothecary who wants more than anything to become a spy. Janie and Benjamin become friends over chess in the park, where Benjamin sits and watches people. He has become suspicious of a particular man. But then strange things start happening--Benjamin's father is kidnapped. A man is murdered with a sundial. A mysterious book called the Pharmacopoeia falls into Janie and Benjamin's hands, and the quest to find the missing apothecary and find out what his real work is begins.
The character development was also fantastic--Janie's transition from a reluctant exile who is desperately homesick to a girl spy happy as a clam in her new London home is just slow enough to make sense, but not too slow as to be boring. The events also realistically affect her--some things that happen to her cause her to adjust further and think "Maybe this isn't so bad after all," and some things (especially early on) just serve to prove to her that they never should have left the U.S.A., and throw her back into homesickness and loneliness. I also felt like her relationship with Benjamin progressed logically, but I won't say more on that, or I'd give a lot away!
Ian Schoenherr's illustrations, largely at the beginnings and ends of chapters, but elsewhere, too, are absolutely magnificent and add a lot to the book.
The only quibble I have with this book is the lack of imaginative dialogue tags. There is far to much "said" when people make a statement and an overuse of "asked" when someone says something with a question mark at the end. Sometimes interesting tags came in, like "admitted," but such gems were rare. I was especially surprised by use of "said" when characters quite clearly whispered. It shouldn't distract from your enjoyment of the book, though, and most people would probably only notice it if it was pointed out to them.
In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes their historical fiction with a bit of fantasy, a lot of mystery, and several plot twists. I look forward to reading Meloy's next book, The Apprentices, which is the sequel to The Apothecary.