Category: Historical Mystery

A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets by Kate Khavari

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Interwar Period (Nov 1918 - Sep 1939), Part of a SeriesLeave a comment

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

Barbara’s rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Series: Saffron Everleigh Mystery #3
Publication Date: 6/4/24
Period: Interwar Period – 1920 – London
Number of Pages: 336

As with the first two books of the series, this third book is blossoming with intrigue, murder, mayhem, and a bit of romance. It is set in 1920s London with a rich narrative of period detail. It quickly sucks you into a time when respect was almost impossible for working females to win – especially female scholars.

Saffron Everleigh is a brilliant botanist who has had to fight and claw to claim a place as a researcher at the University – and she has to fight against prejudices, jealousies, and resentment every day to keep that position. In the previous two books, Saffron has willingly become entangled in murder investigations involving poisonous plants. Those investigations jeopardized her job and personal relationships, and she is glad to have left that behind her. With things settling down – her research project underway – and things getting back to an even keel with her work colleague (and romantic interest), microbiologist Alexander Ashton, she is looking forward to her next steps. Until . . .

Alexander has spent a lot of time over the last two books admonishing Saffron for her involvement in murder investigations – though he still helped her. Now, imagine his chagrin when he must ask for her help – with a murder investigation. As part of his job as an engineer, Adrian, Alexander’s brother had traveled by train to pick up a set of plans. He didn’t pay a lot of attention to the only other passenger in his car – until the man died. Since the man was poisoned, Adrian was the prime suspect.

Saffron agrees to do what she can to help, but – this time – Inspector Green isn’t inviting her into the investigation. While she can work around him, his cooperation would be much more helpful. This intricately woven mystery takes Saffron from the university, through secretive government labs, and on to government organizations who all want the biggest, best, most effective weapons.

The mystery is engaging, the prose educational, and the story easily translatable into today’s world. I particularly enjoyed the growth of Saffron’s relationship with Alexander and hope that continues to be the case. Yet another interesting part of the story is Nick, Saffron’s best friend’s brother. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? He certainly gave no indications of any soft good-guy edges to him, so I have to wonder if we won’t see more of him because he wants Saffron to work at one of his secret government labs.

This is a well-crafted story that I can recommend if you enjoy a thrilling, thought-provoking read. When I mentioned above that it was educational, I was truthful, as it is filled with a plethora of information on plants, poisons, microbes, methodologies, etc. For me personally, I could do with less of that, but it doesn’t detract from the story in the least – and it might even raise my IQ a bit.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Murder of a Dead Man by Holly Newman

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

Murder of a Dead Man (A Chance Inquiry Book 4)Barbara’s rating: 3.8 out of 5 Stars
Series: A Chance Inquiry #4
Publication Date: 5/28/24
Period: Regency
Number of Pages: 264

While this is the fourth book of the series, it is my first and it is my first by this author. It was well-written and well-paced with the mystery and its clues dribbled out at just the right frequency. It turns out to have been quite a conspiracy – and you’ll wonder throughout the book if it is one perpetrator or many. You won’t have any trouble making the list of possible villains – it is just a matter of who you choose from that list. I enjoyed this book well enough that I have already purchased the first book in the series so I can begin reading from the beginning. Hopefully, I will have read them all before the next book’s release.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book was the portrayal of the victim. Normally, I don’t want to know much about the victim other than hearing it in passing because I don’t want to become emotionally involved with them. However, that wasn’t the case with this story and I appreciated that – just this once. Our victim was a good man, a loving man, but he suffered from a mental health issue that once was called Multiple Personality Disorder. Yes, it truly is a real thing, but I’ve not normally seen the sufferer portrayed in a positive light. Usually, it is that some dastardly personality takes over and does dastardly things leaving the ‘normal’ personality to take the blame – for instance, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. While we never learn what caused Malcolm’s personality to split into multiples, there is enough story for you to make a good guess. Anyway, I came to admire the victim and was very sorry that he died.

As children Lilias, Malcolm, and Alastair spent their summers playing together in Scotland. Then, as they grew up, Lilias and Alastair fell in love and wanted to marry, but her father refused because Alastair wasn’t ‘Scottish’ enough and he made arrangements for Lilias to marry Malcolm. Lilias loved Malcolm – as a friend – and they had a long and reasonably happy marriage despite Malcolm’s mental issues. However, an event happened, and it made Malcolm feel it was unsafe for him to be around his family. Malcolm checked himself into a sanitorium where, after a few years, Lilias received word that Malcolm had killed himself. Then, imagine her surprise and dismay, when after two years of mourning she announces to the family that she is going to marry Alastair – only to be told she couldn’t do that because Malcolm wasn’t dead. OOPS! Then, he really was dead and Alastair was arrested for murder. OOPS!

I really enjoyed Sir James Branstoke and his wife Cecilia Branstoke. Their camaraderie, love, consideration, and working relationship were well-defined since it was the fourth book in the series and it was fun to see them work together. When they were asked to investigate Malcolm’s death to find the real killer and set Alastair free, they decided to use a two-pronged attack. Because Cecilia was still recovering from a serious case of influenza that had swept through their village – and she was expecting their first child – they determined to check Cecilia into the sanitorium. That would allow her to investigate from the inside while James investigated things from the outside. As the clues add up, we meet some interesting ladies within the sanitorium. They are bright, mischievous, full of energy, and the only reason they are in the sanitorium is because that is where they want to be. With those ladies involved, the villains never stand a chance.

I’m always looking for new and new-to-me authors and I may have found one to add to my go-to list. The plot is well-developed and the presentation is good. It was a fun read and I’ll definitely read the first book in the series to see how that goes. I hope it will have a tad more action and excitement than this one. Overall this was a nice read. I will say that I probably would have rated it higher had the book not pretty much ignored the Privilege of Peerage laws.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.