Customer Reviews

The Bee's Kiss

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1926, Scotland Yard Commander Joe Sandilands has come home to England after working cases in India over the last few years (see THE PALACE TIGER and THE LAST KASHMIRI ROSE). Though the locale changes, the scene does not as Joe is assigned to a homicide investigation. Someone brutally battered renowned Dame Beatrice Joliffe in her hotel suite at the London Ritz.

The victim was acclaimed for her efforts in WWI to establish the Women's Royal Naval Service and servings as a Wren. Thus the media is also sniffing around and making noise. Joe, assisted by former Army Sergeant Armitage and Constable Tilly Westhorpe, rejects the scenario that this was a random jewelry theft that turned ugly because the violence speaks otherwise. He wonders if her family or an acquaintance with a grudge committed a homicide but disguised it as a jewelry theft even as his superiors push him to walk gently as national security is whispered.

This is a superb historical police procedural that contains an excellent whodunit enhanced by a terrific look at the Roaring Twenties in swinging euphoric post WWI London. Joe's change of milieu provides freshness to this great series as he and his team investigate a case that twists with every clue. Readers can solve the case, but not easily as the author cleverly provides the audience with a one sitting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I have enjoyed all of Cleverly's Joe Sandilands mysteries. She has a good eye for period detail which makes the books fun and educational. This book takes place in England (versus India) so it has a different flavor. And it was quite good. I enjoyed the peek into the lives of various classes in England during the period between the World Wars. If you liked her other books, you'll like this one as well.

This book was recommended by a member of our book club. It was the March selection. I had a hard time finishing it. It moved slowly and took too long to peak my interest.

I love Masterpiece Theater when there are English dramas and mysteries. I think this would make a good one. But about 3/4's of it would have to be cut out.

Ms. Cleverly is a very good writer, but many of the British idioms were unfamiliar to me. This made it a little hard to read.

But you may want to give it a try. Some members of the our book club liked it.

This was the second Joe Sandiland's mystery I read. The 3++ rating is only due to this book being less satisfying than the first of the series. The author creates what I imagine to be a wonderful period atmosphere. There is a naivete about the books, at the same time many of the characters exhibit a certain decadence. There are twists and turns enough to keep your interest. Nonetheless, it was like eating a large piece of pie with lots of whipped cream ... delicious, but not quite satisfying. I will probably read others in the series despite some reservations.

Allow me to explain the title of this book: technically, it's the name of a cocktail that one of the characters drinks during the course of the story, but the more symbolic nature of the "bee's kiss" refers to the fact that a honey bee cannot survive after it stings an opponent - by striking out, it effectively kills itself. Such is the case of one of the several victims in this intriguing, historically-based and ultimately thought-provoking mystery.

There have been several books starring Joe Sandilands already, the first being The Last Kashmiri Rose (Joe Sandilands Murder Mystery), but this is the first installment that takes place outside of India; instead transporting Sandilands back home to London and Scotland Yard. Set between the two World Wars, Cleverly conveys the atmosphere and turmoil of the 1920s extremely well, creating a vivid backdrop dotted with fun historical tidbits dotted throughout the narrative.

Joe Sandilands is called into the Ritz Hotel in order to investigate the sudden and brutal death of Dame Beatrice Jagow-Joliffe: a vivacious forty-something year old heiress, who played a prominent part in the last World War with her organization of a group of women trained in code-breaking and her involvement in the Wrens (the Woman's Royal Navy Corps).

Yet despite her social reputation and the good deeds to her name, it doesn't take long for Sandilands to discover that there are less-than-reputable elements to her life; including a mother and brother that despised her, a younger lover, and a bitter lady's companion. It isn't long before he realizes that the initial conclusions made concerning her death (that it was a burglary gone wrong) are misguided, and he sets out to find the real reasons for her death.

Teamed up with a young policewoman named Matilda "Tilly" Westhorpe who is called in to shed light on some of the more feminine aspects of the case, and Bill Armitage, a plain-clothes policeman who was staking out the hotel for a cat burglar on the night of Beatrice's death, the three of them begin to poke into a mystery that involves political turmoil, blackmail, scandal, double-crosses - all that juicy stuff. But when Sandilands is ordered by his superiors to drop the case, he begins to suspect that there was much more to Beatrice's murder than meets the eye...

The thing that makes Cleverly's novels stand out from the average detective novel is the ethical dilemmas that make for shades-of-grey characters, ambiguous morals and often a bittersweet conclusion. To say anymore would give several twists away; suffice to say, the end of most of Cleverly's books will leave you wondering: "What would *I* do in that situation?"

Strewn throughout are little portraits of life in this particular time and place, giving the sense that Joe Sandilands (as well as all the other characters, no matter how brief their appearance in the story was) have a life outside the crime that needs to be solved. I can't wait to start reading another Cleverley novel...

I read the first Joe Sandilands mystery The Last Kashmiri Rose and enjoyed it--mostly the intrigue and surroundings of India. This story is one of too many characters, too many dimensions, and almost unbelievable actions that happen in the solving of this case. There's the murder of a woman who also happens to be a member of the Wrens. Her family are a group of dysfunctional people one being a brother who has several children by several mistresses and they all live together at the family estate. The oldest child, Dorcas, is a bit of a prodigy and acts older beyond her years. There is also the sub plot of a general strike going on, Bolshevek activity, and so on. Everyone is under suspicion and at the end there is a surprise but then nothing is really done about it because of the higher rank of the woman who was murdered. I still would like to read some more of the author's Joe Sandiland mysteries.

I've read all of the Joe Sandilands mysteries and am waiting anxiously for the next one. Barbara Cleverly just gets better with each installment. I loved her India novels and was afraid I wouldn't like it as well when she moved Joe to England and later France, but that wasn't the case. This one, set in London in 1926, involves the murder of a society dame that appears at first to be a simple robbery but soon morphs into something more sinister. Joe Sandilands works with two police officers -- one a woman, a rarity in those times -- to wade through the riptide of conflicting evidence. This book introduces a charming young character who will figure more prominently in the next novel. I didn't have a problem with reading them out of order. Cleverly's novels are a fascinating glimpse into the Roaring 20s, but also into the aftermath of WWI and the literal and psychological devastation it wrought on a generation of men and women. I highly recommend this book and the rest of the Sandilands series.