A healer dedicated to curing poisoned patients is swept into a royal mystery in Hemlock & Silver, an eerie and clever dark retelling of "Snow White" from fantasy and horror novelist T. Kingfisher.
 
Anja has just finished dosing herself with snake poison when the king arrives to ask for her help with his daughter, 12-year-old Princess Snow, who is slowly dying of an unexplained illness. He suspects poison and wants an expert opinion. Anja, whose passion is developing cures for poisons, agrees to investigate, though with some worry for herself should she fail in her mission. But Snow's symptoms provide little clue, and Anja's unease is worsened by the princess's aloof manner and the oversized mirror in her assigned bedchamber, a treasure from the dead queen's dowry.
 
Catching onto one of Snow's secrets leads Anja to fall through a mirror into a strange gray world. At first the disquieting reflected world seems empty, but she comes to realize it contains a force that could upend reality forever. Anja will need all her prowess at experimental design as well as the support of silent but steady royal guardsman Javier and a talking cat to save their kingdom and her own life.