Acerbic botanical mysteries galore
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Imagine a neurodivergent Sherlock Homes with no social skills. In her third outing, Professor Eustacia Rose gets thrown into a labyrinth of mysteries that might, just might, return her previously stolen collection of poison plants. Meanwhile, her partner Matilde has plans for moving in that include new paint finishes, cushions on the bed and discarding all of Eustacia’s father’s things. And Eustacia’s rival at UCL keeps trying to tempt her into collaborating, accompanied by the glamorous plant hunter Zsa Zsa, who keeps getting familiar with Eustacia… What’s a botanical toxicologist to do?

Full of joy and detail, the fact that this is the third book isn’t much of a barrier to your enjoyment; there’s definitely backstory that you could read beforehand but you can infer enough to let Eustacia’s acerbic directness amuse and thrill as she attempts to be detective, partner and professor in equal measure.

I absolutely love this series, and all it brings with each mystery, the murders, the quirkiness are brilliant. I’ve recently read the second in this series so it was such a treat to pick this one up so soon after. Eustacia was up to her normal tricks, however it was lovely to read about the normal life events going on in the book, and taking the mystery to Lisbon. The cliffhanger at the end made me gasp out loud.

I’ve been a big fan of Johnson’s previous Eustacia Rose novels but this one felt a bit lacklustre to me.

The main story arc was entertaining, thrilling and well paced - if somewhat repetitive - however the character of Matilde has to be one of the most irritating I’ve encountered in a while. Constantly pushing Eustacia’s boundaries, forcing her to change and making decisions without Eustacia’s input infuriated me more so than in the previous novels.

Overall an entertaining read but I’m hoping Matilde will be missing from the next book!

Thanks to Black & White Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

5 Stars – A Wickedly Clever and Lushly Atmospheric Mystery

Professor Eustacia Rose is the kind of heroine you can’t help but root for—sharp, unconventional, and caught in a deliciously tangled web of secrets, science, and personal stakes. This novel is a rich blend of botany, danger, and emotional depth, with a compelling cast of characters and a plot that blooms with tension at every turn. The stakes feel personal and urgent, as Eustacia juggles love, loyalty, and lethal plants with equal parts wit and vulnerability. Darkly enchanting and utterly original, this is a mystery that digs its roots deep and won’t let go.

This is the third book in a wonderful series about a Professor of poisonous plants who gets dragged into mysteries and crimes through her expert knowledge. I read an eARC of this book on Net Galley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this series which follows Professor Eustacia Rose. I find the subject of poisonous plants fascinating anyway and when combined with such an interesting main character, we have a winner! In this third book Eustacia is presented with a new case to solve which will see her testing her boundaries even further.

This book helps us expand our knowledge of poisonous plants further as Eustacia investigates and we meet new characters who she names after plants (an entertaining trait she has throughout the series). I didn’t find I loved the book quite as much as I did the first two, though it was still a riveting read!

The use of slang for one character was a bit jarring and a shame because the character themselves was pretty interesting and a good addition to Eustacia’s circle. There was also a bit of repetition from the previous two books, which is good in a way if you read this as a standalone or had some significant time between reads, but less so when reading them close together.

A series I will definitely carry on with as I adore Eustacia as a main character and I am keen to see what plants she introduces us to in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of this novel. I'm rating it 3.5* and would recommend it with some caveats.

***Review Summary:***
I was so excited to read this book. Midsomer Murders meets Sherlock Holmes, but with a middle-aged, queer, autistic female protagonist whose special interest is plants: what's not to love?

The book seems best-suited to those looking for a fun, twisty story and who don't mind small inaccuracies or minor plot holes. The tone is often comical, and the book isn't afraid to lean on stereotypes. The ending was a particularly good mixture of entertaining and sweet. Some of the supporting cast of characters were absolutely delightful.

That said, I want to flag that Bella Donna is the third book of a series. With hindsight, I don't think it was the best starting-point for getting to know our protagonist Professor Eustacia Rose.

I haven't read the other two books, and went into this novel thinking that it would be a standalone in the style of Agatha Christie. To a certain extent, it was: the plot was still easy to understand. However, I struggled to connect with the characters, especially since the backstory of their relationships wasn't ever explained, and there were some references to how past cases interact with this book's case that I'm still confused about.

Although I'm rating this book 3.5*, I will keep my eye out for the first in the series (Devil's Breath) because I think I'd really enjoy a proper introduction to the professor.

***Detailed Review:***
On paper, this book has everything you could want. A light-hearted, twisty, gore-free murder-mystery plot in fun locations with unique characters and interesting plant facts. (I think the protagonist's habit of giving every character a plant nickname may be my favourite thing about this book.)

But as I mentioned in my review summary, these characters have a history that's not always shown.

As I began reading, it became clear that the protagonist and her girlfriend are going through a rough patch. But because I hadn't seen their relationship when things were good, I just kept thinking that they were a terrible couple. One can't stop lying to the other; the other completely disrespects the things that are important to her partner. Perhaps if I'd read the first two books and seen what brought them together, I'd have desperately wanted them to resolve their issues. Instead, I just kept thinking that they should break up.

Similarly, for much of the novel, I struggled to connect with the protagonist Professor Eustacia Rose — despite the many things we have in common as autistic, queer nerds. On top of being a terrible partner, she spends a large part of the book being selfish and severely lacking in empathy. For example, when a man tells Eustacia that he can't risk his life to find her plants because he has a wife and child to look after, Eustacia tells him that he should risk his life because her plants are as important as his child. And while I don't need my characters to be 100% likeable, I do like to see some redeeming qualities in the first half of the book. Unfortunately, I didn't really get that until the end of the novel.

I guess some people might say that Eustacia's lack of empathy is because she's autistic. And I recognise that autism can present very differently from one person to another — that's why we say it's a spectrum. But the stereotype that autistic people lack empathy has been categorically shown to be untrue. Although autistic people can struggle with intuitively understanding people's emotions (e.g. understanding how someone feels based on their facial expression and automatically knowing how to react), we've also been shown to be great at cognitive empathy (based on the context, I think this person probably feels...). So it's not because of Eustacia's autism.

Eustacia's lack of cognitive empathy doesn't just make her say hurtful things. It also gets in the way as she tries to do things that will a) obviously backfire and b) the people around her are telling her will obviously backfire and explaining why. It got a little tiring, if I'm honest. Again, there are a lot of different ways that autism can present, but I've yet to meet an autistic person who isn't acutely aware that neurotypical people understand other neurotypical people better than we do.

However, Eustacia does demonstrate more empathy as the novel goes on, and I found myself growing fond of her towards the end. Also, in the second half of the novel, it became clear that she has some recent (?) trauma (on top of a lot of very old trauma) that could perhaps explain her poor handling of situations (but it's not explained what nearly any of this trauma is, so I guess it all came up in previous books). I think I might have liked her a lot better from the start had I read the previous two books.

I also mentioned minor inaccuracies and small plot holes. I think this is the type of thing that some readers won't care about, others will chuckle over, and others will be driven crazy by. It just comes down to what you look for in your books. Here's an example so you can decide how much it might bother you: one Brazilian character had the name Carlos Santos, which is like calling a British character James Smith, but the plot hinges on seemingly unrelated Portuguese characters instantly recognising the name. (Also, the author doesn't seem to be great with Brazilian names in general, with married couples sharing one single surname despite that normally meaning a sibling relationship!)