TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN (A Bee Keeping Mystery #1) by Jennie Marts will be released on July 18, 2023 by Crooked Lane Books.
Mystery writer Bailey Briggs, along with her daughter and dog, returns to her hometown in Colorado after a few years away. Upon arriving at her grandmother's ranch, she finds Granny Bee in a heated argument with the town's mayor. The next day, Bailey finds the mayor dead from an apparent allergic reaction to some of Granny Bee's honey. Everyone in the small town knew of the mayor's allergy, and there is no way he would have willingly ingested honey. The mayor was obviously murdered—and there is a long list of townspeople who had a reason for wanting him dead. Granny Bee finds herself at the top of the local sheriff's suspect list since her honey was the murder weapon. To clear Granny Bee's name, Bailey teams up with her daughter, her eccentric great aunts, her best friend, and the other members of Granny Bee's book club to find the killer.
TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN had an interesting premise—the murder weapon was unique and there were plenty of suspects with solid motive—but I just couldn't get into the story. Part of my problem was that I really didn't like any of the main characters—Bailey and her best friend came off as very immature and the rest seemed annoying. I also couldn't understand why the sheriff let Bailey traipse all over the crime scene or why he kept letting her take the lead in his investigation. She always seemed to be one step ahead of him and easily found out information that he couldn't. It made the sheriff look like he either had no idea what he was doing or was just really bad at his job. It stretched my imagination a little too much to find Bailey's crime solving abilities believable. Overall, it was an interesting story and will be great for anyone who is looking for a light cozy mystery.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.