A BOTANIST'S GUIDE TO PARTIES AND POISONS

A woman fights for recognition in 1923 London.

Saffron Everleigh is following in her late father’s footsteps as a botanist at University College London. Though she’s alienated her family and been sexually harassed by department head Dr. Berking, she refuses to give up her job as assistant to Dr. Maxwell, who’s supported her ambitions. At a party for faculty, wives, and donors, she meets the attractive and accomplished microbiologist Alexander Ashton. The party features all the obligatory backbiting, but Saffron hardly expects to overhear a conversation about the various affairs of Dr. Henry, one of the professors, or watch as Mrs. Henry collapses, quite possibly poisoned. When the police seize on Dr. Maxwell as the killer, Saffron begins poking around with some help from Ashton. Noticing that someone has taken a cutting from a dangerous plant Dr. Maxwell brought back from Mexico years ago that’s taken over a large part of one of the greenhouses, she does the same, drinks an infusion made from the cutting, and blacks out just as Ashton enters the office. They both watch in fascinated horror as the symptoms described in Dr. Maxwell’s journal slowly appear. Saffron refuses a doctor, even as paralyzing blue lines travel up her body, since the journal says the plant's effects will be temporary. Even more determined to prove Dr. Maxwell innocent, the two sleuths look for a motive connected to his expedition and find more than they expected.

An exciting debut with a determined protagonist whose future is sure to contain romance and mystery.