{"id":6873,"date":"2026-01-16T09:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6873"},"modified":"2026-01-16T09:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:33:08","slug":"february-book-club-the-botanists-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/february-book-club-the-botanists-assistant\/","title":{"rendered":"February Book Club: The Botanist’s Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>All are welcome to join us via zoom in February to discuss Peggy Townsend’s\u00a0The Botanist’s Assistant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>We’ll meet at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 22.\u00a0 Message me for a zoom link.\u00a0 This was one of my favorite reads of 2025 with it’s mix of quirky heroine and smart sleuthing, with plant facts as a side delight.\u00a0 Here’s my review:<\/p>\n

I could not have loved this utterly charming mystery more.\u00a0 It\u2019s original, it\u2019s well written, it\u2019s well plotted, and it has a wonderful main character in botanist Margaret Finch.\u00a0 Much like her name, Margaret resembles a large bird (and she is in fact referred to as Big Bird behind her back), and she values order, cleanliness and science above all else.\u00a0 In her work as a research assistant in a lab, these qualities serve her well.\u00a0 It\u2019s people she has trouble with, not plants.<\/p>\n

The only person she has true respect for is her boss, Dr. Deaver.\u00a0 When she discovers his body in his office, details seem off to her, details the busy police officer (who is busy ignoring Margaret\u2019s suggestions of poison) seems not to notice.\u00a0 When Dr. Deaver\u2019s death is declared a heart attack, Margaret knows, in the interest of truth and science, that she must discover what really happened.\u00a0 In this way, Margaret is similar to all amateur sleuths of every description.\u00a0 She fits into a narrower category \u2013 the neuro divergent detective, someone familiar to fans of detective fiction and TV for many years, from Columbo to Monk to E.J. Copperman\u2019s classic Asperger detective to Nita Prose\u2019s \u201cmaid.\u201d All share a quirkiness and while there are many differences, their similarity is the observation of all details.<\/p>\n

Because Margaret notices details and feels compelled to share the truth and facts wherever she sees them, she is not always a popular person with her co-workers.\u00a0 Dr. Deaver seems to have valued her \u2013 but as you read about Margaret\u2019s routine and attention to detail in the lab, you really cannot blame him.\u00a0 However, forces around Margaret are not cooperating \u2013 i.e. the human drama and undercurrents surrounding Dr. Deaver\u2019s death.\u00a0 Human drama and undercurrents are things Margaret finds extremely difficult to navigate.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Margaret finds an ally \u2013 a strangely scarred janitor who turns out to have been a journalist in a former life.\u00a0 He also is excellent at ferreting out truths, and together, they make a good team.\u00a0 As readers, we also get a glimpse into Margaret\u2019s life.\u00a0 She lives in a remote cabin, very difficult to access as it sits on a winding mountain road, and it contains only the essentials.\u00a0 She maintains a strict cleaning schedule which is ultimately interrupted by the arrival of a cat.\u00a0 I will leave it to the reader to discover the pleasures of the cat.<\/p>\n

Margaret\u2019s appearance, behavior, and manner of dress make it easy for people to either underestimate or ignore her.\u00a0 This is another trait of many successful detectives, of course \u2013 they are ignored.\u00a0 Margaret is not always a fan of being ignored and the reader senses that despite her fierce independence, she is also lonely.\u00a0 What she does have are plants \u2013 in the lab, and around her home.\u00a0 The different qualities and attributes of various plants are sprinkled through the narrative, in a way that\u2019s both enjoyable and informative for the reader.<\/p>\n

While some of this description makes this book sound melancholy, it really is not.\u00a0 Margaret is brave and persistent and her smarts and determination allow her to find both the solution to the murder as well as a few friends.\u00a0 Life throws her obstacles, for sure, but she overcomes them in a pretty believable way.\u00a0 I loved Margaret and hope she makes a return to the page sooner rather than later.\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All are welcome to join us via zoom in February to discuss Peggy Townsend’s\u00a0The Botanist’s Assistant.\u00a0\u00a0We’ll meet at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 22.\u00a0 Message me for a zoom link.\u00a0 This was one of my favorite reads of 2025 with it’s mix of quirky heroine and smart sleuthing, with plant facts as a side delight.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2383,2323,2324],"class_list":["post-6873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-club","tag-february-book-club","tag-peggy-townsend","tag-the-botanists-assistant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6875,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6873\/revisions\/6875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}