Publication Date: November 18, 2025
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.
The Botanist’s Assistant by Peggy Townsend is set in a research lab on a small college campus. There is a lot of scientific and plant terminology that sets a high bar.
Quirky characters abound, and none more so than Margaret and one of the other workers in the lab, Calvin. They initially only seemed to tolerate each other, but it evolved into mutual respect after the death of Dr. Deaver, a professor, researcher, and head of the lab where they work. But is his death from natural causes or murder, as Margaret suspects? When she joins forces with a custodian to find the real cause of death and the culprit, little does she know that Joe had been an award-winning journalist who had traveled the world for his stories before needing a break.
There are multiple storylines, lots of clues, and red herrings, along with colorful descriptions of the plants, Margaret’s home, and her surroundings. The cute chapter titles added a bit of levity, as did the stray cat, Tom, whom Margaret lets into her life. There are twists and turns as Margaret’s suspect list is trimmed and pared. When the murderer is revealed, it wasn’t who I expected, and from there, the ending seemed rushed without the details that were woven throughout the rest of the book.
The Botanist’s Assistant is an unexpected murder mystery with scientific details and data sprinkled throughout as we race to figure out whodunnit.
Peggy Townsend is an award-winning journalist and author. Her work has appeared in Catamaran literary magazine, Santa Cruz Noir, Globe Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Twice she lived for seven weeks in her van, traveling to Alaska and along the back roads of the US.
