ARC Review: A Botanist's Guide to Tradition and Treachery by Kate Khavari

A Botanist's Guide to Tradition and Treachery
Author: Kate Khavari
Series: Saffron Everleigh Mysteries (Book 5)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (June 9, 2026)

Description: Brilliant botanist Saffron Everleigh has set sail on her first research expedition, but it's disrupted by accusations of murder when one of her fellow scientists is murdered in this daring fifth installment.

Saffron Everleigh is newly engaged and full of optimism as she sets off on the adventure of a lifetime for any scientist: a research expedition. She sails to newly formed Turkey with her fiancé, Alexander Ashton, and a bevy of fellow researchers under the watchful and reformed eye of Dr. Henry. With only two other women on board, Saffron soon finds she is right back in the same infuriatingly misogynistic environment that marked the earliest days of her career. Only this time, Saffron is determined to show everyone, including Alexander, that she can handle the trials of an expedition.

And trials she has in spades. Before the expedition team has even arrived, Saffron has managed to find an enemy in historian Joseph Clark, who frequently torments the assistant that Saffron has taken under her wing, Martin Neill. But when Martin unexpectedly dies, Saffron is targeted as the main suspect.

Falling ruins, venomous snakes, and mysteriously blocked passages are the least of Saffron’s worries. With unexpected help from a familiar face, Alexander and Saffron have to work fast to prove not only that Saffron is innocent but that they both have nothing to do with a larger conspiracy at play among the expedition crew.

My Thoughts: The fifth Saffron Everleigh historical mystery sees Saffron on her first scientific expedition. She is traveling to the newly formed Turkey to explore Smyrna. Her fiancé Alexander Ashton is along on the expedition which is led by Dr. Henry. Unfortunately, Dr. Joseph Clark is also along on the expedition and is the one Saffron is supposed to work with most closely. 

Clark has taken an inexplicable dislike to Saffron and is playing dangerous pranks on her including a venomous snake, locking her in an underground room, dosing her with sleeping powders, and toppling a loose stone on her. Dr. Henry and even Alexander are inclined to see these things as pranks often done to those new on expeditions though Alexander believes Clark is going much too far. 

Saffron is determined to take care of herself despite these "pranks" and doesn't want to look weak by depending on her fiancé who has assigned her a "helper" named Martin Neill who is a young biologist. When Neill takes ill and dies, Saffron becomes an immediate suspect in his death because of rumors Clark has started about their supposed relationship. 

Arrested by the Turkish police, Saffron needs to depend on Alexander and a mysterious character from earlier in the series to unravel what is happening and to clear her name. Saffron soon finds herself in the middle of antiquities smuggling and old secrets. 

This was another engaging historical mystery about an interesting main character trying to make a place for herself in a man's world. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.