A Matter Of Hive and Death
The Blurb
(A B&N Exclusive)
It’s early May on the Oregon coast. Wren Johnson, the owner of the Let It Bee honey shop, is preparing for the annual UFO festival. Her Aunt Eloise has even designed costumes for their Havana Brown cats to celebrate the occasion. It’s also fruit tree blossom season, so Wren goes to check in with her bee wrangler friend, Elias Brentwood. What she finds at his house are three destroyed hives, a mad swarm of bees, and Elias on the ground. She calls 911, but when the EMS arrives, Elias is dead, not from bee stings, but from blunt force trauma to the head.
After another bee wrangler is found dead with his hives destroyed, Wren dives into the local beekeeper community to help figure out who is destroying the hives and murdering the bee wranglers. Is it a secret government cover-up? A sinister plot to invade North American swarms with genetically modified bees? Or all a scam put in place by the killer as a way to corner the local market? As Wren gets closer to solving the murders, the killer smashes the beehive inside Let It Bee, causing chaos for Wren and her kitties. Wren and Aunt Eloise must figure out who the killer is, but can they prove it before another person dies? There’s just one way to solve the mystery; they’ll have to set up a sting!
The Details
Series: An Oregon Honeycomb Mystery – Book #2
Author: Nancy Coco
Genre/Category: Cozy – Hobby/Pets
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 9781496731784
Page Count: 352
Rating: 
The Review
Even though this is only book two in the “An Oregon Honeycomb Mystery” series, I have come to love the characters, including the Havana Browns that are lovingly described and cared for by the characters. Wren and Aunt Eloise have great personalities, quarks, and funny little habits that make readers want to spend as much time with them as possible. A Matter Of Hive and Death shows how excellent a writer Ms. Coco is. Making something as ordinary as honey and bees into a motive for murder is intelligent and humorous.
When a bee wrangler is murdered, not by bees but by a blow to the head, Wren jumps in to help find the killer. But the honey that flows from the suspects isn’t sweet. When another wrangle ends up dead as well, and his hives destroyed, Wren and Eloise know the motive can’t be professional jealousy or about honey. Evidence begins to build as they get closer to the truth, and the killer decides they have gotten too close. Putting their lives on the line once again, Wren and Eloise track down the killer and make sure no one else gets stung.
The writing in A Matter Of Hive and Death is flawless, the locations are described in-depth, the characters are developed, and the plot in this book is original and compelling. The bees are topical in our world today as they are vanishing. Honey is beloved the world over, and if we lose the bees, there will be many products that we use every day that will no longer exist. This is a timely series that also happens to be very compelling. I am happy to recommend this book to readers who enjoy character-driven series.
The Author
Nancy Coco AKA, Nancy J Parra AKA, Nell Hampton is the author of over 27 published novels which include five mystery series. Her writing has been called witty, and her protagonists plucky by reviewers around the world. Nancy is a member of Sisters in Crime and writes for the Killer Character Blog on the 8th of every month.
She is an Air Force veteran who rose to the rank of sergeant; Nancy is a member of an online group of female veterans called RomVets: Military Women Who Have Turned Sword to Pen. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Nancy lives in Oregon with a Bichonpoo affectionately known as “Little Dog.”
Readers should go back and read the first book in the “An Oregon Honeycomb Mystery” series; Death Bee Comes Her or another of Nancy’s books such as Oh Fudge from the “A Candy-Coated Mystery” series.
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