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Book: “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets” (Saffron Everleigh Mysteries #3) by Kate Khavari
Publishing Info: Crooked Lane Books, June 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: The library!
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: London, 1923. Returning from Paris, botanical researcher Saffron Everleigh finds that her former love interest Alexander Ashton’s brother, Adrian, is being investigated for murder. A Russian scientist working for the English government has been poisoned, and expired in Adrian’s train compartment. Alexander asks Saffron to put in a good word for Adrian with Inspector Green. Despite her unresolved feelings for Alexander, Saffron begins to unravel mysteries surrounding the dead scientist.
As if a murder case weren’t enough, her best friend Elizabeth’s war-hero brother, Nick, arrives in town and takes an immediate interest in Saffron. Saffron learns Alexander has been keeping secrets from her, including a connection to Nick, who Saffron and Elizabeth begin to suspect is more than he seems.
When another scientist is found dead, Saffron agrees to go undercover at the government laboratory. Risking her career and her safety, she learns there are many more interested parties and dangerous secrets to uncover than she’d realized. But some secrets, Saffron will find, are better left undiscovered.
Review: I took a bit of a break from the Saffron Everleigh Mysteries after reading “A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality”. I didn’t really do it deliberately (I mean not totally…), as I think it was more a matter of lots of other books coming out and just getting lost in the shuffle. But now that Kate Khavari’s fifth book in the series is coming out this summer (and after being asked to read it… stay tuned!), I decided that it was time to get back on the horse. And so I picked up “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets”, another botany STEMinist mystery with botanist Saffron Everleigh at the forefront in post WW1 London! And it was fun picking it back up, I’m happy to report.
Saffron gets pulled into another plant/poison based mystery when her old beau Alexander reaches out, saying his brother Adrian is suspected of murder after a man he’s traveling in a train car with drops dead of poisoning. Alexander hopes that Saffron will be able to help clear Adrian, and even though she is still a bit stung by Alexander she agrees to help. I admit that I missed Saffron and her flatmate/best friend Elizabeth. I felt right back into their banter again, and liked how they support each other not only in the mystery at hand but also in their day to day lives. Given that the second storyline of this book involves the sudden reappearance of Elizabeth’s brother Nick and how suspicious Elizabeth is of it, it was interesting seeing how these two friends deal with the mystery at hand as unexpected details come together (also it was a real hoot seeing Elizabeth and Saffron and Michael Lee from the previous book go to a night club of sketchy repute in hopes of finding information. Yes we’ll talk about Lee in a bit). And it does all tie in with Alexander’s worries fairly well. In fact, the mystery itself with dead scientists and a lab with unknown research was entertaining.
And the setting is still so perfect for me. We are now in 1923 London, and while WWI is behind them we are still seeing how it affected not only Saffron and Elizabeth and those around them, what with Elizabeth’s brother Nick cropping up unexpectedly and stirring up the grief of losing Wesley, Elizabeth’s brother and Saffron’s sweetheart, we also see the way that scientific research was affected post-War. Specifically in how the lab Saffron joins on the down low and the kinds of research it is doing with the memory of mass death still fresh. It’s fun how Khavari took a science thriller premise, that so much in the present focuses on scary new tech and the dangers of it running amok, and translates that kind of fear to a fear of tech one hundred years prior. That is what made this particular mystery stand out for me.
I will say that my big quibble that kind of marked down the experience for me is a petty one, and it’s one that plays a huge part in the story that kind of spoils some lingering questions from the previous book (and honestly, it’s also probably why I put off reading this one for as long as I did because I just knew it was going to happen). I want to talk about it but know that it’s a big ol’
Recall in my last review, I talked about Saffron finding herself in a bit of a potential love triangle, with the two points being old love interest Alexander (who had been away on a scientific excursion and came back super bitter about her for some reason) and Michael Lee, her forensic partner in poisonings last book. I thought that Saffron had much more chemistry with Lee, as the work together well and he always bolstered her intelligence while also trusting her judgement. Plus he was just more fun and less of an ass than Alexander, who was being a total jerk to her in the last book. Well, this book quashed it pretty fast and it’s made clear that Alexander is the one for her, and I was PRETTY irritated by that, mostly because HE WAS STILL BEING SUCH A WHINEY BABY TO HER IN THIS BOOK. He asks for her help with his brother, refuses to tell her why, and leaves out SO MANY DETAILS that she would need to know to be able to help him and gets all sour when she calls him out on it. WHY is this the guy that she is destined to be with? He’s such a drip. I do hope that Lee continues to show up because he’s a hoot, and maybe he and Elizabeth will start something up (honestly? That would be iconic).
So irritating romance nonsense aside, overall I enjoyed “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets”. It had some interesting stakes, set up a clear path forward, and had some more science-y shenanigans with an unique historical lens.
Rating 7: A compelling mystery that still has a unique hook, “A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets” is another fun thriller with Saffron Everleigh and her friends buoying the story.
Reader’s Advisory:
“A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Fiction Books About Plants”.
Previously Reviewed:
The Library Ladies 