Flowers of Evil by N.L. Holmes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Neferet and Bener-ib are two young ladies with a very unusual occupation, they are medical professionals and is Egypt, this is practically unheard of, they have trained for half their lives so that they could open up their own practice, the only issue is that people are very wary of them and tend to steer clear. This infuriates Neferet, but Bener-ib just becomes disheartened, neither of them however, are going to give up on their dream, so Neferet takes matters into her own hands and looks for the reason why they are not receiving any patients.

Neferet is stubborn and once she has her mind set on something, nothing will sway her from the path she has decided to take and this path is no other, she has decided to pay a visit to the other medical professional in the area and see if they can’t come to some kind of arrangement. It soon becomes clear that this will be an impossibility as soon as she speaks to them, the terms of endearment used and the manner of which she is spoken to raises her hackles and she soon decides that it isn’t worth any more of her time, so she heads back to the practice.

This was not to be a peaceful morning because there is a frantic banging on the gate and frenzied shouts for aid, do they spring into action and see the patient, however, they ultimately realise that they will not be able to save him and offer their condolences to his wife when he does pass. As the story of the injuries unfolds, it becomes clear that this was a murder and of a high class person at that, it turns out that they were the head florist at the temple of the Aten and therefore, not someone with many enemies, this is something the two ladies ponder as the clean up the building ready for lunch.

This lunch turns out to be a family gathering of the most joyful sort, but they have an ulterior motive, they want to speak to Neferet’s father about the murder and see if they can get any pointers as how to go about solving it, but they are warned away from for good reason, especially when the danger starts to follow them. Will the two medical professionals be able to solve the crime with the help of their family, or will they be stopped before they can? This is a historical mystery where danger lies in the shadows and discoveries are made which could make or break fates and lives as this tangled web is sorted through.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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