Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco

Death Bee Comes Her (An Oregon Honeycomb Mystery, #1)

by Nancy Coco

Nancy Coco, author of the popular Candy-Coated Mystery series, brings the Pacific Northwest's rainy coast to life with her new Oregon Honeycomb Mystery series starring Wren Johnson and her Havana Brown cat, Everett. Wren owns a specialty shop in the tourist town of Oceanview, where it's all things honey from taffy to body scrub until the murder of a victim clutching one of Wren's homemade beeswax lip balms makes things sticky...

A BALMY WAY TO GO

With her Let It Bee honey boutique buzzing along nicely, life is as sweet as nectar for Wren Johnson--until she takes a morning walk along the Pacific beach with her Havana Brown cat, Everett, and stumbles upon the body of Agnes Snow, the cranky queen of the local craft fairs, stiff as driftwood. More unfortunate? Clutched in the victim's fist is a label from Wren's homemade beeswax-and-honey lip balm. Which makes Officer Jim Hampton focus his dreamy-blue Paul Newman eyes on Wren as suspect number one.

With fabulous feline support from Everett, Wren must comb the town for clues and clear her name before someone else gets stung.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Death Bee Comes Her is the first book in a new small-town cozy mystery series by Nancy Coco. Released 26th Jan 2021 by Kensington, it's 320 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

This is the first of a new series of "small town" shop cozies from a veteran author. For fans of the genre, this one ticks all the boxes including a punny title, recipes, clean language, non-gory murder, a likable female sleuth, a foreshadowed slow-burn romantic interest, and a cat "sidekick" who helps her solve the mystery. If it is, admittedly, trope-y and formulaic, it also has everything that fans of these series (including me) love. The pacing is good and doesn't drag. The dialogue can be a bit over the top and unnaturally stilted occasionally, but all in all, it's a fun and undemanding read with a satisfying denouement (a touch of the melodramatic), and resolution. There are some continuity problems, but nothing that won't likely get ironed out in the next book or two.

Three and a half stars. A promising start for a new series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 February, 2021: Finished reading
  • 13 February, 2021: Reviewed