The 2 stars for this book are only because I haven't figured out the motive yet. The book doesn't clarify and clear that. And using poison as a means to kill is innovative.

But, my gosh, the writing is bad. Kate is SUCH a terrible character. She just does not have sense. I have no idea how she's a researcher because she doesn't seem to have any brains. Well, maybe perhaps that is what the author was going for. A person so stuck to her research that she doesn't know anything about the world around her.

As a character, Kate blows hot and cold all the time. Sometimes she's so stupid she'll go talk to a person she suspects of a murder. The next instant, she'll interrogate someone and be so good at it, it's surprising. These contrasts make it quite annoying as a read.

There's NO reason why there would be anything romantic between the characters. They don't talk about anything apart from their work and there's so much backstory that has yet to be revealed. The other characters also behave oddly several times. Plus this is a mystery without clear motivations, jsut a lot of smoke about different characters.

I'm not sure whether I'll read the next books in the series. Because this is a continuing series of sorts, the mystery in the first book doesn't perfectly resolve itself, perhaps I will. Honestly though, this is very skippable.