Buzz Off

I love a cozy mystery to relax with, and when it gives me not only an interesting whodunit but something new I can learn about, I always feel like I hit a jackpot. Hannah Reed has done just that with her new series.

Story Fischer is celebrating her divorce from her skirt-chasing now ex-husband, Clay Lane by having a one-day sale on everything in her store, The Wild Clover, and offering champagne. She is also celebrating the kick-off campaign for September National Honey Month. Story has been learning beekeeping from her mentor, Manny Chapman, and she is now the proud owner of two strong beehives. Manny has studied and kept a journal on every aspect of honeybees and is the owner operator of the strongest, most productive honey farm in show more Wisconsin.

Buzz Off is told in first person by Story. Her celebration is interrupted suddenly with the news that Manny is unconscious and may be dead. The police and paramedics can't tell because he is covered with bees and they can't get at him. They need Story to get the bees away. She can not believe he would be killed by honeybees, especially when they have a lot of honey to take back to their hives, but she does notice yellow-jackets among the bees which definitely could do the deed. Unfortunately, nobody believes her. We are now at the crux of the mystery. Story believes it is murder, everyone else thinks the bees killed him and the town, led by the overzealous wife of the town chairman, is out to get Storey's bees.

Moraine is a very small town, more like a neighborhood. As such, readers might think there would be no way for secrets to be kept, but readers, you would be wrong. This town abounds with secrets, even with a very informed but oft mistaken gossip queen in their midst. Hannah Reed has peopled the book with a melange of quirky characters in this small town. The story flows well, the research done by Hannah is excellent, I suspect from her obvious care and knowledge that she is also a beekeeper when she isn't writing. In fact, being around the hives is probably conducive to writing, a music of its own. More character-driven than not, this series promises to be flat out fun, murders aside. I found this book enjoyable, descriptive, and the feel of the book is well-defined. Readers may feel they have been dropped into the story and become a part of it. The crimes are well-plotted and the solutions hinted at remain well-hidden. The heroine is flawed just enough to feel comfortable with, no perfect specimen of femininity here, and she is no slouch under attack, but she is very entertaining. A good beginning to this series, I know I will be following it wherever it takes me. Recipes included. show less

This was a really fun cozy mystery, and that's coming from someone who is petrified of bees.

The main character, Story Fischer, absolutely loves bees. She is an apprentice beekeeper, a very recent divorcee, and the owner of the local grocery store in her small town. Things seem to be looking up--until her beekeeper mentor is found dead and everyone in town begins to panic and blame his bees.

What I especially liked about this book was that the mystery stayed front and center. The beekeeping and honey-making aspects were definitely important and frequently referenced, but it was the mystery that was the focus.

What I didn't love about the book was the author's insistence on putting in character quirks that, to me at least, felt not only show more unnecessary, but off putting in some instances. Story has a thing for men's feet that comes up multiple times in the beginning, serves no purpose in the story, and is then never talked about again (thank goodness). Story's sister also talks in irritating internet slang abbreviations, which Reed then has to translate for the readers.These strange details are not necessary-the characters are more than strong enough to stand on their own. show less

Another cozy mystery series. I mostly liked it. I did find it a little bit long and somewhat overly involved for a cozy mystery. I hated the bullet point lists - I understood the point but I felt like it disrupted the flow - it was like I was always jarred out of the story at that point. I liked the inclusion of the newsletter at the end. The romance was a little odd - kind of just appeared out of nowhere. I didn't entirely love Story but she grew on me as the story went on and as there was less of Clay. But I liked Holly and Grams. I hated Holly's text speech. It didn't make sense and it was annoying af. No one over the age of eighteen speaks like that. Ever.
I don't know, it didn't feel as light and connected if that makes sense - as show more normal cozy mysteries do. Felt like it lacked some sort of spark, warmth of characters. That being said the beekeeping was an interesting inclusion and the information about bees was fascinating. I'll continue the series for sure. show less

Like the beginning of many a cozy mystery series, we find that our protagonist, Story Fischer, has just emerged from a divorce. She has taken up beekeeping and also has her own business in her small Wisconsin town that seems to customize in honey products of all kinds and organic produce. Everything is starting to look up for Story, until her beekeeping mentor and friend is found dead near his beehives with stings all over him and bees swarming all around him. Story gets drawn into the investigation of his death because she wants to prove that the bees, which she sees as very gentle creatures, did not kill him. Soon, however, another dead body is found by the river in her canoe, and she becomes a legitimate suspect.

I thought this was a show more great first novel in a new cozy mystery series. I liked all the characters, except for Story's mother. Why is it that all the mother's in cozy mysteries are so horrible? The Wisconsin small town setting with the beekeeping backstory was a lot of fun. I loved all the beekeeping lore. This one gets a thumbs up from me. show less

From the back cover - It’s September – national Honey Month – in Moraine, Wisconsin, and things are looking up for Story Fischer. Her messy divorce is final, the honey from her beekeeping business has been harvested and the market she owns is thriving. Life seems pretty sweet … until Manny, her mentor in the honey business, is found stung to death in his apiary. Story is still trying to explain to the panicked locals that her honeybees had nothing to do with Manny’s death, when another body is found floating in the Oconomowoc River. This time the evidence points to Story’s ex. Sure, he’s a womanizer – but a murderer? Desperate to save her bees and her business, it’s up to Story to find a way out of a very sticky show more situation.

My reactions
This has all the hallmarks of a successful cozy mystery: a likeable main character, a budding romance, an interesting backstory (beekeeping), and a plausible reason for our amateur detective to get involved. On the other hand, Reed uses several devices that completely irritated me. Story’s need to put everything into bullet-points made me think only that Reed couldn’t figure out a way to turn her outline into prose. The book includes the stereotypical incredibly wealthy sidekick (in this case Story’s younger sister, Holly), who speaks in text-speak. That little quirk was cute the first time Holly uttered a sentence, but quickly GA (got annoying). I had identified the killer early on, despite the many suspects Reed included.
I did like that the budding romance with K-9 handler Hunter Wallace is nice and slow, leaving lots of room for future plot developments.

While I liked the basic premise for this series, the irritations in the dialogue and style tipped the scales and I’m giving it only 2 stars. show less

This was extremely hard to read. I know cozies are fluff for the most part and there is a formula to them, but this was just tedious. It was difficult getting into the story. She kept speaking in bullet points. "Bullet point one.....bullet point two...." She actually said it on several occasions. Then instead of writing parts of the story, it was in bullet point form. I like bullet points as much as the next person (maybe more) but jeez. Then there was the foot fetish. Please stop looking at the well shaped toes.

No surprises in this mystery, a pleasant vacation read. I decided that my inability to follow the meager plot convolutions had more to do with Story, the protagonist, being pretty scattered herself. I liked Reed’s promotion of bees, local produce and wild foods. And as a Wisconsin native, I had to admire Reed’s marketing of our state’s attractions, which are not inconsiderable tho not monumental. However, she forgot to include the other 5-10 bars in her listing of businesses in her typical small town setting.
I was irritated by Holly’s habitual use of acronyms—which was the point, Reed wanted us to know that Story thinks this is irritating, but it’s still lousy to read.