The Botanist (2020) by Anne Wedgwood

Anne Wedgwood is a new-to-me author who I first came across on Instagram. I enjoy inverted classic crime mysteries from authors such as Francis Iles, Charlotte Armstrong, Nicholas Blake, Donald Henderson, Richard Hull, Edna Sherry, and Bernice Carey. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how the subgenre was faring in modern times.

Synopsis

‘Retired doctor Lilian Templeton has a dead body in her garden and there is nothing she can do to stop the gas men digging it up. DI Ronnie Twist and her sergeant, Luke Carter, are not fooled by Lilian’s apparent innocence, and a game of cat and mouse ensues as Lilian seeks to hide her murderous past and avoid detection. What led Lilian to kill? How many murders has she committed? And will she get away with it?’

Overall Thoughts

Conventionally inverted mysteries involve the reader observing a killer prepare for a crime, which they then commit. The reader then must see whether they will get away with it. The structure of The Botanist is a bit different from that, as although the story is narrated by Dr Lilian Templeton, she is not about to embark on a murderous spree at the start of the book. Instead, she has just realised that her past dark deeds are going to come to light when the gas board dig up her garden to replace a pipe. So, in that respect this story concentrates its attention on the “will she get away with it” question. Nevertheless, the reader still needs to know what Dr Templeton is trying to cover up, so the book has alternating chapters between the past and the present, with the former drip-feeding information about earlier events. Again, this modifies the standard structure of the inverted mystery which traditionally gives the reader more information up front.

In the same way that Miss Marple comments on how elderly women are underestimated, Dr Templeton says at the beginning of the story:

‘If you met me, you’d never guess what I’ve done. I’m one of the invisible. Women of a certain age, conventionally dressed, going about their business, shopping, gardening, on their own after spending years looking after aged parents, nothing to catch the eye. You’d never look at me and wonder if I was a killer.’

The opening of the novel is good at making you want to know more. For example, we know that the gas board are coming to dig up the garden, and that a body will be found, but who is the victim? And what are Lilian’s plans to evade justice? The tension is raised when the gas board arrive early and we see the strain Lilian Templeton is under trying to play the part of the shocked old lady in front of the police, whilst also burning with curiosity as to the state of body and what clues might be retrieved from it. From chapter one I think the author does a good job of establishing the cat and mouse feel of the narrative.

With an inverted mystery one of the difficulties for the writer is managing the reader’s reaction to the murderous protagonist. The need for reader sympathy for the protagonist is challenged by the character’s violent deeds. How can you prevent the reader being so repelled by the character that they’re put off reading more about them? Wedgwood navigates these tricky waters well and even by chapter three I caught myself wondering, why do I want Dr Templeton to succeed against the police? Is it because she is a pleasant old lady whose guilty deeds are in the past? Is because we’re not allowed to get too close to the police characters, who we only see through Lilian’s eyes? Is it because of a love of the underdog and a fondness for a character winning against the odds? After all, I think Dr Templeton is a little naïve at the start of the story when she mis-judges the resources and capabilities of the police. They are a more formidable foe than she anticipated. I wondered if this made her more vulnerable and therefore more sympathetic. Nevertheless, the writer complicates this picture. Dr Lilian Templeton is not left as a one-dimensional sympathetic and wronged figure, as there are parts of her past which the reader might not warm to. Moments where the reader might think she went too far.

It is interesting how there is more than one motive for Lilian Templeton’s actions, one of which give her more of a Mr Ripley feel. I am not sure this angle is fully developed, or rather perhaps I wasn’t fully convinced by what Lilian did in light of her Mr Ripley-like motive. Dr Templeton’s past has several strands to it. I don’t think the reader can predict all of these from the beginning, although as the book unfolds, some of the darker elements of the narrative are perhaps signalled too early. As each new piece of information is revealed it was quite easy to see how it all joined together and once enough pieces were in place, I was able to anticipate the whole picture. The denouement is tense, as the author puts in place people and events which corner Dr Templeton. However, I think the ending was abrupt. Nevertheless, there are two more books in Wedgwood’s Twist in the Tale series: The Soloist (2022) and The Narcissist (2023), which both sound like books I might want to read in the future. Interestingly, although there would appear to be two reoccurring police officer characters, the stories themselves seem to be led by the guilty or those suspected as being as such.

Rating: 4.25/5 (I was able to read The Botanist in a couple of hours or so, which made for an intense and therefore gripping reading experience.)