A matter of hive and dea.., p.1
A Matter of Hive and Death, page 1
Mouthwatering Praise for Nancy Coco’s Mysteries
Death Bee Comes Her
“Personable characters and lots of honey lore.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Forever Fudge
“Nancy Coco paints us a pretty picture of this charming island setting where the main mode of transportation is a horse-drawn vehicle. She also gives us a delicious mystery complete with doses of her homemade fudge . . . a perfect read to wrap up your summer!” —Wonder Women Sixty
Oh, Fudge!
“Oh, Fudge! is a charming cozy, the sixth in the Candy-Coated Mystery series. But be warned: there’s a candy recipe at the end of each chapter, so don’t read this one when you’re hungry!” —Suspense Magazine
Oh Say Can You Fudge
“Beautiful Mackinac Island provides the setting for a puzzling series of crimes. Now that Allie McMurphy has taken over her grandparents’ hotel and fudge shop, life on Mackinac is good, although her little dog, Mal, does tend to nose out trouble.... Allie’s third offers plenty of plausible suspects and mouthwatering fudge recipes.”—Kirkus Reviews
“WOW. This is a great book. I loved the series from the beginning, and this book just makes me love it even more. No one can make me feel like I am in Mackinac Island better than Nancy Coco. She draws the reader in and makes you feel like you are part of the story. I cannot wait to read more. FANTASTIC is the only thing I can say further about this book.” —Bookschellves.com
To Fudge or Not to Fudge
“To Fudge or Not to Fudge is a superbly crafted, classic, culinary cozy mystery. If you enjoy them as much as I do, you are in for a real treat. The setting of Mackinac Island immediately drew me to the book as it is an amazing location. The only problem I had with the book was reading about all the mouthwatering fudge made me hungry.”
—Examiner.com (5 stars)
“We LOVED it! This mystery is a vacation between the pages of a book. If you’ve never been to Mackinac Island, you will long to visit, and if you have, the story will help you to recall all of your wonderful memories.”
—Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries and Meows
“A five-star delicious mystery that has great characters, a good plot, and a surprise ending. If you like a good mystery with more than one suspect and a surprise ending, then rush out to get this book and read it, but be sure you have the time, since once you start, you won’t want to put it down. I give this 5 Stars and a Wow Factor of 5+. The fudge recipes included in the book all sound wonderful. I am thinking that a gift basket filled with the fudge from the recipes in this book, along with a copy of the book, some hot chocolate mix and/or coffee, and a nice mug would be a great Christmas gift.” —Mystery Reading Nook
“A charming and funny culinary mystery that parodies reality-show competitions and is led by a sweet heroine, eccentric but likable characters, and a skillfully crafted plot that speeds toward an unpredictable conclusion. Allie stands out as a likable and engaging character. Delectable fudge recipes are interspersed throughout the novel.”
—Kings River Life
All Fudged Up
“A sweet treat with memorable characters, a charming locale, and satisfying mystery.” —Barbara Allan, author of the Trash ’n’ Treasures Mystery Series
“A fun book with a lively plot, and it’s set in one of America’s most interesting resorts. All this plus fudge!”
—JoAnna Carl, author of the Chocoholic Mystery Series
“A sweet confection of a book. Charming setting, clever protagonist, and creamy fudge—a yummy recipe for a great read.” —Joanna Campbell Slan, author of the Scrap-N-Craft Mystery Series and the Jane Eyre Chronicles
“Nancy Coco’s All Fudged Up is a delightful mystery delivering suspense and surprise in equal measure. Her heroine, Alice McMurphy, owner of the Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop (as much of a mouthful as her delicious fudge), has a wry narrative voice that never falters.
Add that to the charm of the setting, Michigan’s famed Mackinac Island, and you have a recipe for enjoyment. As an added bonus, mouthwatering fudge recipes are included. A must-read for all lovers of amateur sleuth classic mysteries.” —Carole Bugge, author of Who Killed Blanche
Dubois? and other Claire Rawlings mysteries
“You won’t have to ‘fudge’ your enthusiasm for Nancy Parra’s first Mackinac Island Fudge Shop Mystery. Indulge your sweet tooth as you settle in and meet Allie McMurphy, Mal the bichon/poodle mix, and the rest of the motley crew in this entertaining series debut.” —Miranda James
“The characters are fun and well-developed, the setting is quaint and beautiful, and there are several mouthwatering fudge recipes.” —RT Book Reviews (3 stars)
“Enjoyable . . . All Fudged Up is littered with delicious fudge recipes, including alcohol-infused ones. I really enjoyed this cozy mystery and look forward to reading more in this series.” —Fresh Fiction
“Cozy mystery lovers who enjoy quirky characters, a great setting, and fantastic recipes will love this debut.”
—The Lima News
“The first Candy-Coated Mystery is a fun cozy due to the wonderful location filled with eccentric characters.”
—Midwest Book Review
Also by Nancy Coco
The Oregon Honeycomb Mystery Series
Death Bee Comes Her
The Candy-Coated Mystery Series
All Fudged Up
To Fudge or Not to Fudge
Oh Say Can You Fudge
All I Want for Christmas Is Fudge
All You Need Is Fudge
Oh, Fudge!
Deck the Halls with Fudge
Forever Fudge
Fudge Bites
Have Yourself a Fudgy Little Christmas
Here Comes the Fudge
A MATTER OF HIVE AND DEATH
An Oregon Honeycomb Mystery
Nancy Coco
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Praise
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Acknowledgments
Teaser chapter
About the Author
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2021 by Nancy Coco
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
The K and Teapot logo is a trademark of Kensington Publishing Corp
Kensington Mass Market Edition: April 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3562-1
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3179-1 (ebook)
This one is for Phyllis, who believed in me and shared her generous heart. You bolstered me and always spoke your mind. I will try to be more like you. The world is not the same without you.
Chapter 1
“Oh, Wren, what do you think?” Aunt Eloise asked as she walked into my shop, Let It Bee. She held out her Havana Brown cat, Elton, dressed in a green alien costume.
“That costume really brings out the color of his eyes,” I said. My cat, Everett, meowed his agreement. Elton was Everett’s uncle. My aunt had bred Havana Brown cats for years until after Everett’s mother died. Then she decided that encouraging people to adopt cats was a better way to go and started a Havana Brown rescue group.
“It’s for the McMinnville UFO festival,” Aunt Eloise said. “You’re going, right?”
I winced. “I forgot about it. But in my defense, all my time has been taken up by the Let It Bee second-anniversary celebration this weekend.”
“It’s only Monday, and the festival doesn’t start until next Wednesday. So you have plenty of time to get ready. I’m sure Everett is looking forward to it.” My only living relative and near and dear to my heart, Aunt Eloise was a tall woman with the large bones of our pioneering ancestors. At least, that’s how I liked to think of it. Anyone who’s played Oregon Trail, the computer game, knows
Eloise had grown up in Oceanview, Oregon, along with my mother. I, myself, had spent only three years in town before going away to college. But over two years ago, I returned and started Let It Bee, a shop featuring honey and bees in a 1920s building just off Main Street and a few blocks from the beach. “I’m bringing Emma and Evangeline. You know how Everett gets jealous when his sisters get to do fun things and he’s left out.”
Everett meowed his thoughts on the matter. I sighed. It had been years since I’d been to the UFO festival. Based on a UFO sighting in McMinnville in the 1950s, the festival was equal parts campy, with parades and vendors selling alien souvenirs, and serious, with speakers discussing the science behind sightings.
“Fine,” I said. “We’ll go for the parade and shopping, but I’m not dressing up.”
“Oh, goody.” Aunt Eloise pulled a silver costume out of the pocket of her long cardigan sweater. “I made him this! What do you think, Everett?” She held up the metallic spacesuit.
He jumped down from the cashier counter and walked to her. Aunt Eloise bent down, and Everett sniffed the suit delicately, then meowed and rubbed up against her leg.
“He likes it!” She straightened. The smile was wide in her strong face. Her gray hair was held in a bun on top of her head, and I caught a whiff of her orange-blossom perfume. “Now we can all watch the parade in style. Wait until you see my costume. I have a necklace that looks like a collar. The cats are the owner, and I’m the pet!”
“Well, that’s certainly true of all cats,” I teased. “But I’m not wearing a costume.”
“You said that already,” she pouted a moment, then broke into a wide smile. “Is it okay if I ask Sally Hendrickson to come with us? She would wear a costume. She’s into cosplay.”
“Yes, that’s fine,” I said.
The bells on the door to the shop jangled, and my sales manager, Porsche Allen, stepped inside the door. She shook off her umbrella, folded it, and walked into the shop. “Not busy today?” She looked around the currently customer-free store.
“We had a nice rush this morning, but between the rain and school getting out soon, there’s a bit of a lull,” I said.
“Typical Monday,” Porsche said as she put her umbrella into the holder behind the cashier stand and pulled off her raincoat. Porsche was tall and thin, with gorgeous black hair from her Korean mother and sparkling blue eyes from her American father. Today she wore jeans, black booties, and a green sweater. “Hey, Eloise, what’s up?”
“We’re going to the UFO festival in McMinnville this weekend,” Eloise said. “Isn’t Elton cute in his little green costume?” She held up her kitty and placed the silver metallic costume on the counter. “I brought this one for Everett.”
At the sound of his name, Everett jumped up on the counter and brushed by Porsche so that she could stroke his brown fur.
“Nice,” Porsche said. “I took the kids to that festival last year. They had a blast.”
I grabbed a zippered hoody sweatshirt off the coat tree near the counter, slid it on, and then grabbed my purse. “Please tell me you didn’t dress up.”
“We didn’t,” Porsche confirmed. “But the boys want to this year.”
“Oh, good, we can all go together,” Aunt Eloise said.
“Well, I’ll let you two figure things out. I have an appointment. Thanks for coming in a bit early and covering for me, Porsche. Is someone picking the kids up from school?”
Porsche had two boys, River and Phoenix, who were ten and eight years old, respectively. “Jason worked from home today, so he can get them.” Her husband, Jason, worked for a local tech company and was able to work from home whenever he wasn’t traveling.
“Great, thanks. I’ve got to go see a bee wrangler about the fruit-tree honey,” I headed toward the door.
“Tell Elias we said hi,” Aunt Eloise said.
“I will.” I waved my goodbye and pulled the hood up over my curly hair to keep it from frizzing too much in the soft rain. It rained a lot in spring on the Oregon coast. Unlike Porsche and her umbrella, most natives simply put on a hooded sweatshirt and stepped out, hood up. I guess we were used to being damp.
Elias Bentwood was a bee wrangler who lived in an old house on the edge of town. He’d trained me in the art of beekeeping and was my go-to guy for local honey. If Elias didn’t have it, he could point me to where to get it.
I got into my car and drove the mile or so it took to get there. The house was a one-bedroom shotgun style, which meant you could open the front door and shoot a gun straight through the house and kill someone in the backyard. Aunt Eloise said that a bachelor lumberjack had built it in the 1920s, and it had been neglected until Elias bought it in the 1980s.
The tiny home was painted white and had sea-blue shutters. Elias maintained it well. I’d known him ever since I’d gotten out of college. Most of his hives were hired out at the moment to the farmers near Mount Hood. It was fruit-tree-blossom season, and bee wranglers would ensure there were hives close to the blossoms.
Bees typically foraged two miles from their hive, and even though some were thought to forage two to three times that distance, bee owners trucked hives in during blossom season to ensure the trees were properly pollinated.
Elias loved his bees and wintered some of his hives behind the house. It was Elias who had helped me design the glass-walled hive that took up a portion of my shop. Bees are important to the environment, and he’d been thrilled when I told him I wanted a safe way to give my customers a look inside a working hive.
He’d helped me build the hive on the exterior of my shop and introduced the queen bee and her court to the hive. It had become so successful that it was one of the biggest draws to my shop. The kids loved to come and watch the bees work, making honeycomb and depositing honey.
The rain stopped, and the sun came out as I walked up on the porch. I pulled my hood off, letting my curls spring out, and knocked on the door. “Elias? It’s Wren.” There wasn’t an answer, but I wasn’t worried. Elias was probably out in the back with the one or two hives he hadn’t hired out. I moved off the porch and followed the sidewalk around the side of the house to the back. The house didn’t have a garage or even a driveway. Instead, there was a two-track alley in the back where Elias would pull his truck in and out to move the hives.
I heard someone moving through the back bushes. “Elias? It’s Wren.” Rounding the corner of the house, I came upon a horrifying scene. There were three hives tilted over, the roofs pushed off and the bees swarming, angry and confused. I caught the sound of car doors slamming and saw a blue car speed away down the alley.
“Elias! The bees!” Instinct had me stepping back to keep the side of the house between me and the angry bees. “Elias!” I called and peered around the house. Whoever did this must have taken off in the car. I didn’t want to get stung, so I stayed on the side of the house and dialed Elias’s cell phone.
I could hear ringing coming from the backyard. “Elias?” The only sound was the phone ringing, and it went quiet as I was dumped into voice mail. If Elias was in the backyard, he might be hurt or, worse, attacked by the confused bees. The only safe vantage point to find out for sure would be from inside the house. I hurried around to the front of the house.
The door was unlocked, and I walked into the small living room. “Elias? It’s Wren. Are you okay?” I made my way quickly through the tidy kitchen to the bedroom in the back. No one was there. The bedroom was a mess of scattered papers and files on top of the made bed. I hurried to the back door that led out to a tiny screened porch.
