Death By A HoneyBee I (Mystery & Women Sleuths) (A Josiah Reynolds Mystery) [Kindle Edition]

Abigail Keam (Author)

Book Description

Josiah Reynolds is a beekeeper trying to stay financially afloat by selling honey at the Farmers' Market. She finds her world turned upside down when a man is found dead in her beeyard, only to discover that the victim is her nemesis.

The police are calling the brutal death murder and Josiah is the number one suspect! Josiah makes the rounds of quirky characters that can only be found in the lush Bluegrass horse country. Fighting an unknown enemy in the glamorous world of Thoroughbreds, oak-cured bourbon and antebellum mansions, Josiah struggles to uncover the truth in a land that keeps its secrets well.

Editorial Reviews

Review

USA BOOK NEWS - Best Book List of 2011 Finalist

Readers Favorite Gold Medal Award 2010 for Women's Literature

"Suspenseful, funny, and imaginative, DEATH BY A HONEYBEE is a fantastic read."         Lynn Pruett, author of Ruby River. --LYNN PRUETT, author of RUBY RIVER

"Ms. Keam has the makings of a very good mystery writer.  . . . DEATH BY A HONEYBEE is an enjoyable read which will capture the interest of most die-hard mystery fans."  READERS FAVORITE  May 17th 2010 --READERS FAVORITE

 "With this we are introduced to a cast of characters and a storyline that, like honey, is sweet and delicious."   Linda Hinchcliffe, CHEVY CHASE MAGAZINE, April 28th 2010

--CHEVY CHASE MAGAZINE

From the Author

                  This is not your typical mystery series. If you are looking for a mystery book where everything is neatly resolved by the last page, you should move on. This mystery series will break every rule for mystery writing to present something new in the field of mysteries. It is as much about a woman's life as it is about a mystery. If you are tired of reading "formulated" cozy mysteries, then follow me into the rabbit hole.   Enjoy the ride.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 441 KB
• Print Length: 225 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0615347347
• Publisher: Worker Bee Press (April 1, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003UV988Q
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,311 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy & Fun Reading experience for young readers and adults! August 21, 2010

By Anna Lowery

Format:Kindle Edition

Intriguing plot, refreshing and easy to read! This mystery hooked me early and I stayed up late to finish the book, so I could find out "who done it!" I liked the way the country setting of the crime and historic flavor of the town was skillfully woven into the storyline. Josiah Reynolds, the main character, was a delightful personality and easy to empathize with; and she drew the reader into her world emotionally in the way she related to the other characters, and as the events unfolded. A fun reading experience!

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Death by a Honeybee August 18, 2010

A Kid's Review

Format:Kindle Edition

This was a very enjoyable book, with quirky, fun, and mostly likable characters. Set in Central Kentucky (primarily in Lexington), it gives the reader a caricature view of the area along with some local history. There is quite a bit of humor in this mystery novel, and it left me wanting to know more about the main character, Josiah Reynolds. I am looking forward to the next Josiah novel which I hope picks up where this one ended.

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I dislike cliffhangers March 27, 2012

By Sharon

Format:Perfect Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This would have been a 4-star read for me except for the ending, which turned out to be an absolute classic 'cliff-hanger' which is one of my pet peeves.

I picked up this book because of the KY setting, something I am interested in since I am not a KY native. Book has lots of good qualities, interesting plot, great characters and obviously knowledgeable view of the regional culture and geography.

Someone without my serious personal prejudice against this type of ending will probably like the book. Since I'm still fuming about the incredible cliff-hanger ending, I do not plan to read another in this series as I read for entertainment and the ending spoiled my enjoyment of the entire book.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, overplotted, and seriously in need of a copy editor July 20, 2012

By Cat

Format:Kindle Edition

There's a kernel of a good book buried in Death by a Honeybee; too bad you, the reader, have to slog through some seriously bad writing to get to it. At least one sentence per paragraph contains an error in usage that impedes understanding--think tense shifts, logical impossibilities (you can't park your van as you're going up your driveway or finish your meal as you're placing your order), pronoun disagreements, and so on. Several concepts are needlessly and quite pedantically overexplained even as major plot points are written off as characters being too suggestible/sympathetic/revengeful for belief. There are no fewer than four villains and way too many characters, almost all of whom speak in the exact same awkward way. The heroine's internal chronology is impossible: she's a fifty-year-old in, let's say, 2010, when this book was published. Yet she was on her way to a tenure-track professorship as early as the late 1970s, when she would have been in her late teens. Oh, and she lives in a house strongly implied to be more than 30 years old but built by her late husband, while they were married, at the height of his career--also, apparently, in the late 1970s, when the book's internal chronology makes him only a couple of years older than her 18 or so. Don't even get me started on the fact that she's supposed to be broke but spends $40,000+ on security systems and lab tests.

Also, consumers, do yourself a favor and Google the organizations that gave this book awards. They exist to allow self-published authors to boost sales by calling their books "award-winning." At least there's one logical thing about this novel--how it managed to garner all those accolades.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Great Book! November 15, 2010

By Audrey Tate

Format:Perfect Paperback

Death by a Honey Bee was a truly great read. From the colorful characters to the suspenseful plot, I enjoyed it immensely. Ms. Keam does an excellent job of showing her readers the culture and charm of Kentucky! My only regret is that now I'll have to wait for Ms. Keam to finish the next installment in the series. Looking forward to it!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars You can get more readers with honey than with vinegar... March 28, 2012

By Aggie Christie

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am not saying that this book wasn't well written...I just thought the main character was a spiteful and whiny woman.
The moment that she found out that a woman had cancer and was wearing a wig, she basically shrugged her shoulders and slammed the car door as she exited. If the character that I am suppose to feel sympathetic towards shows absolutely so sympathy to anyone else in the story, I kind of wished they would pin the murder on her and be done with it.
The lawyer that her daughter hired was suppose to be strong and independent I guess..but she came across as a b****. Her behavior goes from yelling at the woman accused of murder to inviting herself to dinner and a swim in the pool. It was crazy. Just couldn't get into it because of my dislike for the characters.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Enough....but August 4, 2012

By Lorri

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Downloaded the book for free and it held my attention long enough at the start to help me decide to read it through. Enjoyed the characters and plot. At times I had to skim a page or two until the story started moving again. VERY dissappointed at the ending. No real closure. Seemed like a lot of time and committment on the readers part to not get a decent the payoff at the end.

37 of 45 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Death By A Honeybee April 10, 2012

By kaydee_reads

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was excited to read this book when I downloaded it onto my Kindle for free (sooo thankful now that I didn't pay for it!) There were alot of qualities that would have made this a great story, but I couldn't get past the choppy dialogue and almost excessive detail - a major distraction from the plot of the book.

I hate starting a book and not finishing it, but the fist few lines into chapter 3 and I was done. "A sharp knock woke me from a dream of my late husband. It was just as well. I surely didn't want to waste my time with him now that he's dead. I got up from my comfortable retro couch, groggy from a late afternoon nap. My medicine sometimes made me sleepy." Seriously? This character whines about her bees, could care less about her dead husband, and the reader is supposed to have sympathy for her?

I really didn't want to give this book 1 star, but I was very disappointed and just couldn't get into this book. I would be hesitant to read something from this author again.

More About the Author

Abigail Keam is an award-winning author who writes the Josiah Reynolds mystery series about a beekeeper turned sleuth. She also write an ebook epic fantasy series- The de Magela Saga. www.abigailkeam.com

DEATH BY A HONEYBEE won the 2010 Gold Medal Award for Women's Lit from Reader's Favorite and was a Finalist of the USA BOOK NEWS-Best Books of 2011.

DEATH BY DROWNING won the 2011 Gold Medal Award for Best Mystery Sleuth and also was placed on the USA BOOK NEWS-Best Books of 2011.


For the second year in a row, the Josiah Reynolds' series made the Best Book List of 2012 for USA BOOK NEWS for Mystery Finalists. This was for DEATH BY BRIDLE which was based on a true UK football scandal that happened in 1962.

Ms. Keam is also an award-winning beekeeper who has won 16 honey awards at the Kentucky State Fair including the Barbara Horn Award which is given to beekeepers who rate a perfect 100 in a honey competition. She currently lives on the Kentucky River in a metal house with her husband and various critters. She still has honeybees.

Death By A HoneyBee I
Death By Drowning II
Death By Bridle III
Death By Bourbon IV
Death By Lotto V