The Botanist

The Botanist
(Washington Poe 5)
M.W. Craven

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What a treat! Today's #RecommendedRead is The Botanist, M.W. Craven's latest Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw masterpiece. I've reviewed others in the series (The Curator and Dead Ground), but this time I was fortunate enough to get an early copy.
Yes I am being hyperbolic, but I don't care. I devoured it in 3 days and it is absolutely fantastic.
Washington Poe, former soldier, and now a detective working for the National Crime Agency, specialises in serial killers and the most fiendish of crimes, and in this book he is given a doozy. The Botanist is targeting high-profile victims, and they just can't figure out how the killer is getting to the targets. At the same time, Poe's friend, series-regular, pathologist Professor Estelle Doyle, is arrested for the murder of her father. ALL the evidence points towards her, but Poe and Tilly know that she can't possibly be guilty.
Poe hates locked room mysteries - but here he has two, and the stakes couldn't be higher, both personally and professionally.
Mike Craven has crafted an enviable series that ticks all the boxes. Central to the books is the wonderful pairing of Poe, and gifted analyst, Tilly Bradshaw. The chemistry of this mismatched duo is what sets them apart. Poe is taciturn, rude and technically inept, but he is a brilliant and tenacious detective who's never met a meat dish he doesn't love. Tilly is a technical genius, whose early cloistered upbringing amongst other intellectual giants, has left her with few social skills, and a wide-eyed naivete and forthright manner that is refreshing, toe-curlingly cringeworthy and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Much to Poe's disgust, she's also a vegetarian.
What's great is the way the author's own dry wit comes across in the narrative, and the book is full of quotable lines.
The fact is, that Craven could have given these two any investigation, and the books would have been popular and fun reads. But he hasn't. The investigations here are fiendishly clever, locked room mysteries. And the answers when they come are brilliant, but obvious when you look back and ignore the expertly placed misdirection.
What's especially impressive is the pacing. Despite two complex and detailed investigations, and the need for the series' trademark Tilly and Poe diversions off topic, the book gallops along. You get a huge amount for your money, yet the book feels neither rushed or overly long.
And on a personal note, as the title of the book suggests, the books rely on a degree of scientific expertise. Through the need for Tilly to explain everything to Poe, the readers are also kept in the loop, and it doesn't become burdensome. The science is a little out of my own area of biology, but as best I can tell is accurate and plausible. Craven has wisely taken advice from advisors such as fellow writer Brian Price, who he has credited in the acknowledgments.
All in all, the book is an excellently crafted novel, from a writer at the top of his (and anyone's) game.
If he wasn't such a nice bloke, and I didn't enjoy these books so much, I'd hate him!
The Botanist is out on June 2nd and is sure to be showered with accolades.
Have you had a chance to read The Botanist yet? Is it on your TBR pile? Feel free to comment here, or on social media.
Happy reading!
Paul