Who knew organic farming could be so dangerous? Detective Guiliana Linder is called to look into the role of a cop in the death of Simu, a young drug dealer. Things get complicated when a local farmer is found dead and doused with pesticide, and it's discovered he was hosting a marijuana field for Simu. This started off slow and it took time for me to get into the story, but once I did it was an intriguing procedural. I'd read another book from Kim Hays about Guiliana and her Swiss colleagues.

Pesticide
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Mystery Fiction
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 4/19/22
Author: Kim Hays
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Pages: 358
Goodreads Rating: 4.17

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Seventh Street Books and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Story is set in Switzerland. When a rave on a hot summer night erupts into violent riots, a young man is found the next morning bludgeoned to death with a policeman’s club. Seasoned detective Giuliana Linder is assigned to the case. That same day, an elderly organic farmer turns up dead and drenched with pesticide. Enter Giuliana’s younger—and distractingly attractive—colleague Renzo Donatelli to investigate the second murder. But when an unexpected discovery ties the two victims into a single case, Giuliana and Renzo are thrown closer together than ever before.

My Thoughts: I do love police procedurals, and this was no different. While there are slow parts to this mystery, it moves at a good pace. The characters are well developed, have depth, are charismatic, have growing sexual attraction between them, likable, and relatable. The author’s writing style is complex, suspenseful, mysterious, and captivating. Hays’ ability to write incredibly realistic descriptive scenes, makes you feel as if you are right there in Switzerland. Hays’ also describes the Switzerland police system extremely well, in her acknowledgements, she does acknowledge some officers she contacted while writing Pesticide. I highly recommend picking up this book today!

On the eve of the dance in riots detective Juliana Linder is overwhelmed with discord at home in cases piling up so when a rookie policeman is accused of murder and she gets the case and when the murder is connected to the death of an elderly farmer she doesn’t know what to think. With a joint task force they try to go through each thread to find the unknown killer. At the same time she tries to avoid the handsome younger detective who she trains with. Can she find the killer and at the same time stay faithful and keep her family together?
I love that Ulli didn’t trust the police even though he was married to one oh you also love the Julie didn’t talk bad about her husband to the Maori detective whose name I forget. I really like the story and hope there is a second book. I would love to explore the world of Julie her family and the Burns residence. I also loved the preamble to the book where Miss Hayes tries to explain how to say Swedish words in the different dialect they speak. The only one I got close was milk. All in all I think this book was interesting and the plot moved alone at a great pace I would say this book is a real page turner for a great mystery. I received this book by Ned Galli and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own