Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons

3.5★s

A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons is the first book in the Saffron Everleigh Mystery series by American author, Kate Khavari. Following in her beloved father's footsteps, Saffron Everleigh is a botanist at University College, London.

It's 1923, and she's the only female in her department, making her the subject of gossip, innuendo, some harassment, and discrimination due to her gender. But the man for whom she works as an assistant, Dr Alan Marshall, is unfailingly supportive.

Which is why, when he is arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, she is determined to prove his innocence. At a party celebrating an upcoming expedition to the Amazon, Cynthia Henry, wife of Dr Lawrence Henry, collapses after she drinking some champagne, apparently poisoned.

Dr Marshall's extensive knowledge of poisonous plants, in particular, a certain, reputedly highly toxic Mexican vine, implicates him. It's when Saffron conducts a dangerous experiment on herself to disprove this theory that she teams up with Alexander Ashton, a good-looking microbiologist who has recently joined the department.

Together they try to deduce who might have wanted to poison Mrs Henry, and why. Things get more complicated when they wonder if, indeed, she was the intended victim. Saffron does entertain several loose deductions that, with each additional fact learned, veer further into wild guess territory.

And, as she suspects that the poisoner could be a member of the Amazon expedition, they face a deadline if Alexander is not to spend months in the company of a possible killer.

It's lucky she has Alexander onside, as he, at first reluctantly, joins her in escapades that involve searching offices and trespassing in gardens and greenhouses, although eventually he blots his copybook as he ineptly tries to alert her to the likely motive behind a certain professor's uncharacteristic flattery.

Despite lots of somewhat convoluted college politics and the odd plot hole, Khavari captures the era well, and her characters are mostly appealing, except when they're villains, making this a quite enjoyable cosy mystery.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books.