Spotlight & Giveaway: The Botanist’s Assistant by Peggy Townsend

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Peggy Townsend to HJ!

Hi Peggy and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, THE BOTANIST’S ASSISTANT!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Margaret Finch is six-feet tall, big-boned and works as a lab assistant for a charismatic botanist at a small university. Most people regard Margaret as odd for the same habits that make her a good assistant: attention to detail, the ability to organize almost anything and a schedule so precise anyone could tell the day of the week by what she is wearing. When a colleague’s body is found on campus, however, Margaret must trade her microscope for a magnifying glass to solve what she believes is a terrible murder.
There’s also a one-eyed cat.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“Lying is like standing in quicksand. Every word sinks you deeper into the muck.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

First, I love scientists. As a journalist, I interviewed researchers studying things like the human genome, ancient DNA and undiscovered planets. Each of them was smart, curious, detail-oriented and dogged in their research—the very same qualities that make a good detective. Thus, my main character, Margaret Finch, was born, although none of the scientists I interviewed were eccentric or socially awkward like she is. Second, I spent a lot of time reading about poison and plant defenses. Did you know that during the Renaissance, Venetian courtesans reportedly would squeeze a drop from a poisonous Atropa belladonna berry into their eyes to dilate their pupils and achieve a doe-like appearance which they thought made them more beautiful? The downside was that they couldn’t really see the men they were trying to impress.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

The Botanist’s Assistant is not a traditional romance. It’s more about a man and a woman scarred by life who find each other and develop a deep friendship. I think there is something wonderful about male and female friendship. Think “When Harry Met Sally” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I mostly laughed while writing “The Botanist’s Assistant.” Margaret often finds herself in awkward situations because of her size and what others see as her peculiarities. In this scene Margaret and her friend, Joe the custodian, are almost discovered when they break into an office looking for clues:

“She’s reaching for those books which mark the last three years of Dr. Deaver’s research when, suddenly, there is a rattle from the doorknob. She freezes. The knob twists back and forth. Someone is trying to get inside.
Joe hisses a curse. “Behind the couch,” he orders.
He moves quickly and almost without sound. Margaret, however, is not as graceful nor as athletic. She drops to her knees and scuttles behind the sofa like a cockroach seeking shelter from a smacking broom. She is hunched over, her feet tucked beneath her, wondering if any part of her is showing—how can you check when you’re curled up like a pill bug—when there is the sound of a key turning in a lock and the office door opens.
She and the custodian are almost nose-to-nose. He gives her a slight nod as if to say everything will be OK. But will it?…

Readers should read this book….

If they like underdogs, twisty plots and murderous plants.
 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m working on a sequel to “The Botanist’s Assistant” although, instead of California, this one is set in the Sonoran desert in Arizona where there is a lot of room for mischief and murder.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A finished copy of THE BOTANIST’S ASSISTANT by Peggy Townsend

To enter Giveaway, please share this post (FB – Twitter) and Leave a comment to this Q: Have you ever felt underestimated and ignored and what did you do about it?

This giveaway closes 3 days from the date of this post.

Book Info:

A murder in the science lab shatters a woman’s quiet and ordered life when she decides she must solve the crime herself in this entertaining and uplifting mystery.

Plenty of people consider Margaret Finch odd. Six-feet-tall and big-boned, she lives alone in a small cabin in the woods, drives a 20-year-old truck, and schedules her life so precisely you can tell the time and day of the week by the chore she is doing and what she is wearing. But the same attributes that cause her to be labeled eccentric—an obsessive attention to detail and the ability to organize almost anything—make her invaluable in her job as Research Assistant II to a talented and charismatic botanist.

It’s those very same qualities, however, that also turn Margaret into a target after a surprising death shakes the small university where she works. Even as authorities claim the death appears to be from natural causes, Margaret fears it might be something more: a murder born of jealousy and dark secrets. With the aid of a newly hired and enigmatic night custodian, Margaret finds herself thrust into the role of detective, forcing her to consider that she may not be able to find the killer before the killer finds her.

With a cast of quirky and likeable characters that one won’t soon forget, The Botanist’s Assistant is a delightful story of perseverance and the power in all of us to survive.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Peggy Townsend is an award-winning journalist and author. Her work has appeared in Catamaran literary magazine, Santa Cruz Noir, Globe Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Twice she lived for seven weeks in her van, traveling to Alaska and along the back roads of the US.