Charlotte Betts is the author of the award winning The Apothecary’s Daughter. She followed this debut novel with The Painter’s Apprentice  and The Spice Merchant’s Wife, which, whilst the first novels are excellent, surpasses them as regards perfect pitch writing, superb plotting and importantly, very convincing characterisation. All three novels are set between the mid and late seventeenth century. I enjoyed each for differing reasons- The Apothecary’s Daughter is a riveting novel set during The Plague, remarkable for its Cinderella story and attention to historical detail; The Painter’s Apprentice is a court drama and a love story: The Spice Merchant’s Wife is set during the years following The Great Fire of 1666 and this one also contains a romance but it is a sinister thriller too. It has wonderful descriptions of London during the years following The Fire. It has already won one prize and I predict others will follow.
http://thereviewgroup.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/carol-mcgrath-reviews-spice-merchants.html