The Poisoned Honey: An Among the Hives Mystery (Among the Hives Mysteries Book 1)

Maren Holt has spent eleven years building Holt Apiary from two inherited hives and a broken extractor into something she's genuinely proud of — including a late-summer honey so good she's been entering it in the tri-county competition for years. She hasn't won yet, but she's working on it. What she isn't working on is getting tangled up in a murder investigation. That part arrives uninvited, along with her neighbor Agnes and some very unwelcome news: the town's wealthiest resident has been found dead, and a jar of Maren's prize honey was sitting right there on his desk. The trouble is, Maren never sold him a jar. She never gave him one either. And when she counts her stock, she comes up one short — which means someone walked onto her property, into her locked cold store, and stole it. Now Constable Birch is asking questions she doesn't have good answers to, the dead man's family is circling a very complicated estate, and a housekeeper who's seen everything isn't saying nearly enough. Maren would like to leave the investigating to the professionals. She would, honestly. But someone used her honey to commit a murder, and she finds she has very little patience for sitting still about that. Set in the fictional small town of Crestfall Hollow, The Poisoned Honey is a warm, witty cozy mystery full of beekeeping lore, small-town gossip, and the particular satisfaction of a puzzle that rewards attention. It also features Cheddar — a seven-pound Scottish Fold with strong opinions about hats, knitting bags, and the proper use of empty jars — who proves, in her own accidental way, that the most important discoveries are sometimes made by the least likely investigator.