DEATH BEE COMES HER by Nancy Coco

Publisher:      Kensington

Published:      January 26, 2021  

ISBN:      978-1496727022

Genre:     Cozy Mystery 

Format:     Print from Library

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

 

FOUR HEARTS

 

 

Wren Johnson is living the dream, or at least her dream with her Let It Bee honey boutique in her home town on the Oregon coast. Using local sources and her own recipes for lip balms, hand creams, and candles, to name a few items, the store is doing quite well. Locals as well as visitors venture into the store which also hosts a bee hive and Wren’s Havanese cat, Everett. Like all Havanese, Everett is quite talkative and enjoys a walk along the beach with his human.  While out on one of those walks Everett stumbles on something quite unexpected….the body of local resident, Agnes Snow.

 

Agnes was generally thought of as well liked, but clearly someone didn’t like her. Not when she’s been murdered. In a burst of short sidedness the local police deem Wren the killer. Despite their assurances that they are following the evidence they make no bones about her being a person of interest. In fact, she is THE person of interest. When more bodies turn up rumors abound that Wren is a serial killer!  She, her Aunt Eloise and friend/employee Porsche decide they need to find the killer, and fast before Wren ends up wearing an orange jumpsuit.

 

DEATH BEE COMES HER is the first of Nancy Coco’s latest series, The Oregon Honeycomb series and it’s off to a really fun start. There are so many things that recommend this series. What drew me to it first were the subject of bees.  One of my best friend’s husband has become a bee keeper and after them telling me some of the interesting aspects of bee keeping and what they do I really had to check out what Ms. Coco had to say. In between some delicious sounding recipes there are tips about honey and skin and health care. The other draw for me was Everett.  I love a story with a cat and all the better when he or she has a starring role and Everett certainly did.

 

There were some good red herrings, but a couple of them were just left dangling. Not as cliffhangers, but once they served their purpose, like her school crush Conrad and high school nemesis, their story lines were dropped. There is a mysterious cell phone that is never accounted for.  And, there is the start of a romance with Conrad and another with officer Jim…hopefully that’s as far as the author will go with any love triangle aspects….like many cozy readers I find them useless and annoying. It was these dropped lines that lowered my rating to a four.  Otherwise this was a nicely paced, well written, entertaining cozy. I already have book two – A MATTER OF HIVE AND DEATH and am ready to dig into it. The Halloweentown event sounds like a lot of fun and something I’d like to see in my own town. 

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.