Margaret Finch is a fifty-something lady working with
great diligence to find a cure for cancer. Sheβs the
Research Assistant in a science lab at Roosevelt University.
When a tragedy strikes, THE BOTANISTβS ASSISTANT is
the only one to suspect a wrongful death. Β The unusual crime story has echoes of the Australian
science romance tale, Rosie. Margaret used to be a normal
teen, but the loss of her younger sister drove her to lead a
sheltered, precise life. Sheβs the perfect admin
person, noting every detail, cleaning up spills and warning
about toxic plants. Until her boss, Dr. Jonathan Deaver,
after asking for grant applications to be readied, dies of
an apparent heart attack. Dr. Deaver was working on a
rainforest plant-derived toxin, which might provide an
extremely valuable cure. Thereβs also inevitable
academic rivalry for everything from credit on papers to
parking spaces. And Margaretβs investigations soon
turn up marital and romantic issues among the staff. Β The police donβt want to know about
poisoning, mainly because the Dean doesnβt want to
know. Any kind of lab mishap would be bad for business, bad
for grants. He writes off Margaret as neurotic and
distraught. The younger lab assistants, Calvin and Zhang,
have to be considered suspects. Night custodian Joe Torres
has access to most rooms and proves surprisingly helpful to
the amateur sleuth. Β Anyone who works for or
has studied or taught in a good-sized college will probably
recognise some of the issues among the colleagues, which
Peggy Townsend recreates convincingly. Β As botany is
the focus, we also get a look around a lot of toxic plants,
but Margaret just enjoys gardening, her one real hobby. I
love how a stray cat appears and provides her with
affection, something we realise is sadly lacking in the
ladyβs life.Β Β With her attention
to detail and bemusement over daily interactions, Margaret
is an unusual heroine. As I love plants too, I felt a great
kinship with her and the habit of noting Latin names and
characteristics of the flora she meets. Peggy Townsend is a
newspaper journalist, not a scientist, with three earlier
books to her credit. I hope she will let THE
BOTANISTβS ASSISTANT return for more sleuthing and
personal development.Β
A murder in the science lab shatters a woman’s quiet and ordered life when she decides she must solve the crime herself in this entertaining and uplifting mystery.
Plenty of people consider Margaret Finch odd. Six-feet-tall and big-boned, she lives alone in a small cabin in the woods, drives a 20-year-old truck, and schedules her life so precisely you can tell the time and day of the week by the chore she is doing and what she is wearing. But the same attributes that cause her to be labeled eccentric—an obsessive attention to detail and the ability to organize almost anything—make her invaluable in her job as Research Assistant II to a talented and charismatic botanist.
It's those very same qualities, however, that also turn Margaret into a target after a surprising death shakes the small university where she works. Even as authorities claim the death appears to be from natural causes, Margaret fears it might be something more: a murder born of jealousy and dark secrets. With the aid of a newly hired and enigmatic night custodian, Margaret finds herself thrust into the role of detective, forcing her to consider that she may not be able to find the killer before the killer finds her.
With a cast of quirky and likeable characters that one won’t soon forget, The Botanist’s Assistant is a delightful story of perseverance and the power in all of us to survive.
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