The legend of Mulan meets dark academia in Katrina Kwan’s thrilling new novel, an intoxicating potion of murder mystery and alchemy about a woman who must disguise herself as a man to infiltrate a prestigious university and find her husband’s killer.

Alchemy, in the correct hands, is the key to unlocking the mysteries of life, death, and all that is of the unknowable universe.

In the wrong hands, it is a most terrifying weapon.

Li and her husband, Zhen, left their home country of Huay so he could join the University of Quartë’s world-renowned Order of Alchemic Science as a tenured alchemist—a position available to only the most brilliant minds in the field. But Li’s world is shattered when his body is found in a frozen river.

Zhen’s death is ruled a suicide, but when Li examines the body, she discovers gold in his veins. This could only be the work of an elite alchemist, meaning Zhen was, in fact, murdered by someone at the Order, likely one of his own colleagues.

When the police brush off her concerns, Li takes matters into her own hands. She cannot simply walk onto campus, however, as women are forbidden from studying the higher alchemic sciences. Very well: she will pose as a man to gain entry to the university’s hallowed halls and uncover the truth of his death. But as she infiltrates the deepest parts of the Order, she soon discovers that her late husband kept dangerous secrets of his own.