Published June 6, 2023-Crooked Lane Books-352pp
Book Summary:
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. Saffron 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 Saffron’s 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. 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.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
The second installment in Kate Khavari’s Saffron Everleigh Mystery series, set in 1920’s London, features the old Victorian practice of Floriography. Khavari provides adequate backstory without spoiling the plot if readers decide to read the first installment, A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons.
In this novel Khavari explores family expectations and the struggle of women in a male-dominated field. Saffron’s research career choice has created a “gulf of separation” within her family, connecting readers across generations to social and emotional truths of personal choices then and now. The tension in the professional and personal relationship between Saffron and her colleague, Dr. Michael Lee, is interspersed with infuriating dialogue, endearing body language, humorous situations, and life-saving discoveries! Khavari’s characters are skillfully revealed through conflicts between several detectives and their attempts to solve the mystery involving three murders. She layers the murderous plot with exquisite descriptions of flowers and possible meanings while immersing readers in the eye-opening world of The Blue Room jazz club. The underworld of cocaine and its use in the past is brought to light as Saffron dons a beguiling disguise as Sally Eversby.
Kate Khavari delivers “killer bouquets” filled with flowers of friendship, abandonment, and pain, arranged into a potent, perfumed mystery: A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality.
Kate Khavari is the author of fiction ranging from historical mysteries to high fantasy epics. She has her parents to thank for her fascination for historical mysteries, as she spent the majority of her childhood memorizing Sherlock Holmes’s and Poirot’s greatest quips. A former teacher, Kate has a deep appreciation for research and creativity, not to mention the multitasking ability she now relies on as an author and stay at home mother to her toddler son. She lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas with her husband, son, and a lovely garden that contains absolutely no poisonous plants.
The Grateful Reader 