I listened to the first two books in a new (to me) mystery series set in 1923 London, England. In A Botonist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari, Saffron Everleigh is the first woman to become a research assistant at the University College of London, where she is an expert in botany, and thus, poisons. In this first book a professor’s wife is killed by an unknown toxin and when Saffron’s mentor is implicated in the crime, she sets out to solve it. She becomes close to fellow researcher Alexander Ashton as they unravel the clues and find the killer.
The 2nd in the series, A Botonist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality, also features Saffron Everleigh, but instead of Alexander Ashton, she is joined in her investigation by Dr. Michael Lee, a physician. I wasn’t so sure about bringing in a new male lead out of the blue, but grew to like Dr. Lee as well as Ashton. (Although Ashton does return near the end of this book...) This time around women are receiving bouquets of flowers with hidden messages based on the type of flower, and then they die of poisoning soon after. I truly enjoyed both of these books and very much look forward to the third one. The author does a good job of depicting the era and the place and Saffron is a great character. It also highlights the difficulties of being a woman in a male-dominated field... something that sadly remains true in many cases to this very day. I rated both of these book 4.5.
There is a 3rd book coming out in 2024 and I do plan to read it (and any others in this series).
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