A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets (A Saffron Everleigh Mystery, #3)

by Kate Khavari

Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh is ready for her next thrilling adventure in the newest installment of Kate Khavari’s mesmerizing historical mystery series.

“A cleverly plotted puzzle” (Ashley Weaver) in the vein of Opium and Absinthe, this is perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Sujata Massey.

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.

• ISBN10: 1639106626
• ISBN13: 9781639106622
• Publish Date: 4 June 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crooked Lane Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781639106622

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets is a well written and engaging historical cozy mystery by Kate Khavari and the third outing for amateur sleuth Saffron Everleigh. Released 4th June 2024 by Crooked Lane, it's 332 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out second quarter 2025 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This book incorporates so many of my favorite cozy tropes: intelligent female protagonist, an academic setting, with all the jealousy and subterfuge that entails, historical setting (1920s London), some danger and intrigue and "fair play" well constructed mystery plot. 

Saffron Everleigh is a research botanist, with all the misogyny and difficulty that entails at the time at a large research university of the era. She's a legacy in academia, her late father was also an academic. On her return from a trip to Paris, she's drawn into investigating another unexpected death, for which a former love interest's brother is being investigated.

The pacing, plotting, and characterizations are very well done and Ms. Khavari is adept at her craft. The main characters here are academics, and there are a number of academic in-jokes and humorous bits of dialogue which will either require readers to skim over or look up themselves. For readers who aren't bio-nerds, it could be a little tiresome, personally I found it enhanced the read.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 12 hours 6 minutes and is beautifully narrated by series narrator Jodie Harris. She has a well modulated classically trained voice and does a great job with a number of disparate regional accents, and a range of character ages of both sexes and various socioeconomic strata. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.

Four stars. Delightfully engaging. With three books extant, it would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, or a long weekend binge or buddy read. The mystery and denouement are self contained in this volume, so it works well enough as a standalone. Some minor spoilers for earlier volumes should be expected if read out of order, however.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.