Devil’s Breath
I’ve always been better with plants than people . . .
Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her garden with meticulous care. Her life is quiet. Her schedule never changes. Until the day she hears a scream and the temptation to investigate proves irresistible.
Through her telescope, Professor Rose is drawn into the life of an extraordinarily beautiful neighbour, Simone, and nicknames the men who visit her after poisonous plants according to the toxic effect they have on Simone. But who are these four men? And why does Eustacia Rose recognise one of them?
Just as she preserves her secret garden, she feels inexplicably compelled to protect her neighbour, but Eustacia soon finds herself entangled in a far more complicated web than she could ever have imagined. When her precious garden is vandalised and someone close to Simone is murdered with a toxin derived from a rare poisonous plant, Eustacia becomes implicated in the crime.
After all, no one knows toxic plants like she does . . .
Out of stock
Jenn Thornley –
From the Book Club Meeting:
The majority of our members struggled to connect with this book, finding the plot and the characters confusing and unrealistic. The author packed a lot of content into a relatively short story but left a number of things unexplained. Due to the complexity of the story, the number of characters and the number of plant names we often had to go back to re-read things to remind us who was who or what was going on.
Overall Devil’s Breath averaged 2.13 stars.