The Tomb of the Honey Bee - A Posie Parker Mystery, Book 2

Posie Parker is back for another mystery in the second book of her series by author L.B. Hathaway. For those who don't recall from the first book, Posie recovered a priceless family jewel, and as a result, she received a very, VERY handsome reward - large enough to set her up for life. With that money, she fully funded her private detective agency. But at the same time as all of this good news, she had to face some bad news - her blooming romance with business partner Len Irving had to be put on hold as he left town to go be with his father, who had fallen seriously ill. And with that in mind, Hathaway begins Posie's second adventure...

The Tomb of the Honey Bee takes Posie on some rather unexpected adventures in France, Italy, and finally, Egypt.  Posie has the money now, so Hathaway doesn't hold back in letting her spend it. Posie is hired by the very famous Lady Violet Boynton-Dale to locate her brother, the equally, if not more, famous Alaric Boynton-Dale. Alaric is a known adventurer and explorer, and it is not uncommon for him to take off and be gone for months at a time, so Posie questions Lady Violet's concerns. But then Lady Violet shares her reasons - Alaric had recently announced that he was changing his will to leave all of his fortune to Lady Violet - thus cutting out his brother, Roderick (who has a gambling addition); his sister-in-law, Lady Eve, who will do anything to maintain her lifestyle as rich and famous; the family's valet, Codlington, who seems willing to do anything for Roderick and has been acting suspicious; and then there is Ianthe Flowers, a prolific author who has come to Boynton Hall to write a story based on the family, but has ultimately fallen madly in love with Alaric.  Of course, there is also Alaric's secret love affair with the very married Lady Cosima Catchpole and her husband, Hugo Marchpane, who found out about the affair!

With so many suspects, all of whom have motives to have not only burned down all of Alaric's beehives on the property, but to have done away with him altogether, how will Posie sort it all out and discover the truth behind Alaric's disappearance?

While the story starts off fairly slow, it begins to build momentum when the first real body shows up - the author, Ianthe Flowers! Murdered on her last day at Boynton Hall, and the last page of her just finished manuscript missing, it is clear Ianthe knew what happened to Alaric and was going to reveal it in her novel.  But someone stopped her before she could, and now Posie has both a missing person AND a murder to solve!  The clues lead her to France, where she has a chance meeting with her almost-boyfriend, Len Irving (and discovers the real reason why he stopped writing her for so many months!), and then to a small island off the coast of Italy. The island of Ortigia is home to the most mysterious group of monks and their just-as-mysterious honey that they claim has healing properties - but is also hosts a masked villain who seems to be following Posie and who ultimately murders someone who tracked Posie down to the island in order to obtain the valuable coin she has in her possession (which coin belonged to Alaric and is the only clue she has to find him).

With two murders now under his or her belt, the murderer will clearly stop at nothing to get to Alaric.  So, it's off to Egypt and an archeological dig, where a case of mistaken identity leads to a third murder - which, while unfortunately for the victim, is fortunate for Posie, as it gives her the perfect way to lay out bait for the killer to reveal him- or herself!  So, it's back to Boynton Hall for the final revelation, and while not totally unexpected (on my part), it was definitely a fantastic twist.

Hathaway has a way with her characters that makes them believable, despite some of their stereotypical personalities.  The dialogue reads naturally, and there is nothing cardboard about any of them.  In fact, as I read the book, I could "hear" each of the voices and literally feel the desperation, fear, concern, anger, and other emotions coming from each character as they spoke.  That is certainly not an easy thing for a writer to do, but Hathaway manages it with apparent ease, which makes her books true page-turners.  Plus, this book comes with a couple of surprises at the end, one of which pretty much indicates that Posie is going to have her own major nemesis throughout the series.

And, oh, in case you are wondering the title of the book does not come from the bee hives that were all burned down on the grounds of Boynton Hall; rather, it is actually the title of Ianthe Flowers' book that held the final clue to the identity of the killer.

Looking forward to book three!

RATING:  9 cold glasses of frozen granita out of 10 for penning a mystery that is chock full of surprises and twists!