A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets Review

By Sioph W. Leal


Saffron Everleigh returns in A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets, the third instalment of Kate Khavari’s Saffron Everleigh’s mystery novel series. Picking up from its previous book, Saffron returns to London to find that her former love interest, Alexander Ashton’s brother, Aiden, is under investigation for murder. A Russian scientist has been poisoned and was found in Aiden’s train compartment, leading Saffron to unravel the mysteries surrounding this dead scientist. When another scientist was found dead, Saffron agreed to go undercover, risking her career and safety while learning there were more interested parties in this dangerous case. Saffron will soon understand that some secrets are better left undiscovered.

As with any sequel, A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets introduces a few new characters, and none stand out more than Elizabeth, Saffron’s roommate. Elizabeth’s character breathes new life into the Saffron Everleigh series and having her as a more prominent character in this book allows readers to truly get to know Elizabeth as a character. Having Elizabeth's own point of view in some chapters was a fantastic addition to the narrative, but it did highlight some weaker parts of Saffron’s character growth within the series. Elizabeth is not the only new character and Khavari doesn’t overuse the number of new characters in this series, allowing readers to enjoy the new additions while also enjoying the characters’ growing and developing, such as Elizabeth and Alexander.

One of the best things about A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets is how Khavari continues to develop her characters, especially her main protagonist, Saffron Everliegh. In the two previous books, readers were faced with Saffron understanding that her work could be used in a menacing way, and while that theme still runs through the third instalment, Khavari manages to keep this plot point interesting and fresh. While the characters in A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets continue to develop throughout the novel, Khavari is excellent at portraying being a woman in a male-dominated profession in the 1900s without jeopardising Saffron’s character. In instances like this, many writers tend to adopt a more modern persona and environment for their female leads, but Khavari manages to keep Saffron’s experiences time-period-appropriate while also staying faithful to the brilliant, independent character that is Saffron Everleigh.

A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets is an excellent read, but as an investigative mystery novel, it doesn’t quite meet the expectations that one might expect, but this may be due to the pacing of the book. Reading a mystery book, it can be quite frustrating when characters start making progress on their main tasks halfway through the book, which could have begun earlier on had the sub-plots of A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets not taken precedent. A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets does have plenty of tension to keep you going, but it’s not until the last part of the book that it will urge you to read. Given that the main story took over half the book to progress, it will leave readers a little frustrated at the overall pacing of A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets.

A Botanist's Guide to Society and Secrets releases on 4 June 2024

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