Death & Honey

by Kevin Hearne and Chuck Wendig

Galen Dara (Illustrator)

• ISBN10: 1596069147
• ISBN13: 9781596069145
• Publish Date: 28 February 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 April 2021
• Imprint: Subterranean Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

The Buzz Kill by Kevin Hearne

This is an Oberon Meaty Mystery, narrated by Luke Daniels and the number one reason I bought this anthology.

This tale pics up shortly after the events of Scourged, the last novel in the Iron Druid Chronicles. Attius and the dogs have been camping and healing Tasmanian Devils, when Atticus gives them some time to explore. Oberon and Starbuck are soon following a bee, hoping to see a hive. They find the hive but also a dead body and soon the threesome find themselves in the middle of a meaty mystery! It was wonderful getting updates. The mystery was clever and involved tracking, food and the police.

For non-Iron Druid fans, this is a standalone mystery. Hearne did an impressive job of providing character background.

Luke Daniels offers an array of voices and I cannot recommend him enough. He narrates all the Iron Druid Chronicles and Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries. I confess, I look for books he narrates. It felt like coming home. If you start the series, grab it on audio because it’s amazing.
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Grist of Bees, by Delilah S. Dawson, writing as Lila Bowen


Narrated by Robin Miles, this takes place in the world of Bowen’s Shadow series. I have read and enjoyed audiobooks by Dawson, so I was curious to read this. The story centers on Rhett Walker, who has just finished his day when a bee begins to bother him and seems to want him to follow. The bee leads him to a woman who tells him how the Oracle’s handmaidens came down off the mountain and stole her daughter. Something inside of Rhett urges him to help. Terms are met and our adventure begins.

While in some respects I felt I had been dropped into this western landscape, I thought the author did a strong enough job allowing this story to work for newcomers.

As we journey Rhett faces monsters and runs into old friends before the climatic battle. While, the world and characters were interesting it just never grabbed me. The beginning and end were the most interesting, but the middle never fully pulled me in.

Robin Miles was lovely with the narration and offered unique voices, nice pacing and enhanced the story.

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Interlude: Tanager by Chuck Wendig

This is a Wren novella from his Miriam Black world. Xe Sands narrated the story and one I was eager to try. Wendig’s novel the Wanderers was a top ten read for me and my first by this author. I liked this dark, gritty tale about a girl with a talent to see if someone is capable of murder. She is offered a job and becomes an assassin.

This was dark, twisted and had flashbacks that enabled me to get a feel for the world and series but also to fully enjoy the tale. The climatic ending was tense, and I liked the story enough that I will seek the series out on audio. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer

[EBookObsessed]

An interesting anthology which seems to be post-conclusion stories.

In Death and Honey, each story has a central theme of Death and Honey. I know, you probably could have figured that out without me. It also appears to feature characters whose stories have concluded already and it gives us a chance to revisit a world which we lost.

The Buzz Kill: I am a fan of Kevin Hearne and his Iron Druid Chronicles, so this novella which is technically part of the Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries was a must for me. Last year, we saw the end of the Iron Druid Series and our hero Atticus O’Sullivan. At the end of Scourged, he was left in Tazmania with the job of healing the Tazmania Devils. His dogs, Oberon and Starbuck, found a body under a wild beehive and call out to Atticus.

But a simple investigation shows that it wasn’t bee stings that killed him. Atticus, in his guise as a dog trainer, uses the intelligence and keen senses of his hounds to work with the local police to find the killer.

While I was happy to be back with Atticus and Oberon, all I can really say was that it was an interesting story. Atticus is still wounded post-Ragnarok and he is fighting a bit of a depression so it all made me kind of sad. There was a comment that the Detective he was working on as looking longingly at the wild beehive and I started to wonder if we would find out she was a honey badger shifter. There were werewolves and later on some bear shifters that showed up in the Iron Druid Chronicles (not a lot of shifters), but it turned out that she was not.

In a Grist of Bees by Delilah Dawson, she catches up with monster hunter Rhett Walker. He is an interesting character who has now retired from monster hunting and settled down with his boyfriend to do some farming. It has been about four years and Rhett is mostly happy with where is life has gone. While finishing up for the day, a bee shows up and makes him follow (like a buzzing lassie) and he finds a woman crying. The Oracle’s handmaidens have come down off the mountain and taken her daughter. The monster hunter inside is prodding Rhett to help so he promises to retrieve the little girl.

Rhett encounters a few of his old friends and enemies along his journey as well as several monsters which need to be taken care of with his six-shooter.

This was an interesting story and I was able to following along even thought I didn’t know the series. I thought it had an interesting feel of the old, wild west monster-hunter and unusually as Rhett was obviously gay and had to deal with prejudices as well as monsters. While I could follow along with this short story, even without knowing all the backstory, it didn’t grab me enough that I need to go grab all the books in the series and start from the beginning.

I didn’t get to the final story by Chuck Wendig simply because I decided to move on to my other downloads.