The Bag of Diamonds
1887
London, December. A city swallowed by fog so thick that gas lamps become sickly halos, and the Thames exhales like something dying. Into this gloom walks Dr. Chartley, once a respected physician, now a man hollowed out by a single obsession: to distill an elixir that will cheat death itself. His practice crumbles. his bills mount. His children watch their father transform into a stranger who mutters over retorts and glass vials while the world moves on without him. When Constable John Whyley patrols the frozen streets and notices strange lights flickering in the doctor's surgery window, he senses something wrong. His instincts prove correct. Through the fog comes Richmond, Chartley's daughter, frantic with worry, searching for a father who has already slipped beyond her reach. What follows is a labyrinth of mystery, dark family secrets, and the quiet tragedy of a man who sacrificed everything on the altar of immortality. Fenn weaves humor through Bob, the irrepressible houseboy, against a backdrop of Victorian London seething with secrets. This is a story about what we lose when we refuse to accept our mortality and the families destroyed by dreams that consume their dreamers.
