ARC AUDIO BOOK: Botanists Guide to Flowers and Fatality (Saffron Everleigh #2) by Kate Khavari

Publication Date: June 6, 2023 Format: Audio Genre:  Historical Fiction/Mystery Narrators: Jodi Harris

Publisher: Dreamscape Media Length:  11 hours 19 min Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

1920s London isn’t the ideal place for a brilliant woman with lofty ambitions, but research assistant Saffron Everleigh is determined to beat the odds in a male-dominated field at the University College of London. She embarks on her first research study alongside the insufferably charming Dr. Michael Lee, traveling the countryside with him in response to reports of poisonings. But when Detective Inspector Green is given a case with a set of unusual clues, he asks for her assistance.

The victims, all women, received bouquets filled with poisonous flowers. Digging deeper, Saffron discovers that the bouquets may be more than just unpleasant flowers—there may be a hidden message within them, revealed through the use of the old Victorian practice of floriography. And it's a dire message indeed, as each woman who received the flowers has turned up dead.

Alongside Dr. Lee and her best friend, Elizabeth, Saffron trails a group of suspects through a dark jazz club, a lavish country estate, and a glittering theatre, delving deeper into a part of society she thought she’d left behind forever.

Will Saffron be able to catch the killer before they send their next bouquet, or will she find herself with fatal flowers of her own?

 

Review:

I received a free copy of this audio book from Dreamscape Media through Netgalley.com I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

This is the 2nd book in the series and I wish I had read the 1st, not because you needed to in order to enjoy or follow the story but because I love Saffron so much.  Headstrong and inquisitive, Saffron does not fit the mold of the 1920's female.  She works at University College of London and studies poisons and sometimes helps the police when it involves her speciality. 

I was engaged by the study of floriography, of which I know a little but this made it all the more intriguing to me.  There was actually a time when a bouquet was not just a bouquet but a message as each flower has a meaning. When poison bouquets start arriving and people start dying, the police contact Saffron to help.

Saffron's love for investigating often gets her in trouble but she loves it and won't let anyone tell her to stop. Her best friend Elizabeth is a pistol and almost comic relief with her outspoken monologues. Dr. Lee drives Saffron crazy with his messiness and laissez faire attitude. He doesn't try to mold or shape her into something else, he accepts her for who she is and that's refreshing. 

I will definitely be going back and reading the first book and will be keeping an eye out for more entries in this series. The narration of this book was excellent and if the first one is read by the same narrator I may grab the audio of it. 

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