Devil’s Breath is the first novel in a new crime series built around a neurodivergent professor of botanical toxicology, Eustacia Rose. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books

 

Eustacia Rose is a disgraced professor of botanical toxicology. Her life now revolves around her roof garden of poisonous plants as well as watching her neighbours with her telescope. She becomes obsessed with one, Simone and the many men in her life, all of whom Rose names after poisonous plants. When she sees Simone kidnapped, she is forced to leave her solitary life to investigate.

Devil’s Breath by Jill Johnson is an entertaining mystery with a very unusual female protagonist who you can’t help but like. In many ways, she reminded me of Golden Age detectives with her many eccentricities. My one quibble - there were several references to past events that seemed important to Rose’s story and made me think there must have been previous book(s). Well, that and the fact that I will never again be able to garden without thinking about the many ways a whole lot of fairly common plants can kill you. Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope this really is the start of a new series.

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley and Black & White Publishing in exchange for an honest review ( )