Take the Honey and Run (A Bee Keeping Mystery)
by Jennie Marts
About Take the Honey and Run
Take the Honey and Run (A Bee Keeping Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Colorado
Crooked Lane Books (July 18, 2023)
Hardcover : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 1639103074
ISBN-13 : 978-1639103072
Digital ASIN : B0BJP8RN6Q
The town is all abuzz when a murder occurs in Jennie Marts’ debut cozy mystery, perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Amanda Flower.
As a successful mystery author, Bailey Briggs writes about murder, but nothing prepares her for actually discovering the dead body of the founder of her hometown of Humble Hills, Colorado. Bailey grew up at Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch and was raised by her beekeeping grandmother, Blossom Briggs, aka Granny Bee, and her two eccentric sisters, Aster and Marigold—which is why she drops everything to come home and help Granny Bee after a bad fall.
A broken foot doesn’t stop her grandmother from ruling The Hive, her granny’s book club, or continuing to prepare and package her bee-inspired products. But when Bailey’s grandmother’s infamous “Honey I’m Home” hot spiced honey turns out to “bee” the murder weapon and her granny is now the prime suspect, Bailey has no choice but to use her fictional detective skills to help solve the murder and “smoke out” the real culprit.
With the help of Bailey’s witty bestie, a pair of meddling aunts, the feisty members of The Hive, and her computer-savvy daughter, this amateur sleuth is determined to solve the case. A malicious attack and an ominous threat reveal that someone wants Bailey to butt out of the investigation, but there’s no way she’s backing down. She must use her skills to uncover the truth and catch the clever culprit before her grandmother ends up bee-hind bars.
GUEST POST
Thanks so much for having me! I’m so excited to be here to talk about my new book, TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN. It’s the first in a fun new Bee Keeping Cozy Mystery series. And after having over thirty books published, I’m so excited that this will be my first hardback. Yay!
TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN is the story of Bailey Briggs, a single mom mystery author, who returns home to her small mountain town of Humble Hills, Colorado. She and her twelve-year-old daughter, Daisy, arrive to hear her grandmother, Granny Bee, threatening to kill the town mayor. The next morning, Bailey discovers the mayor’s dead body, and Granny Bee’s Honey I’m Home Hot Spiced Honey turns out to bee the murder weapon. Now Granny’s got herself into a sticky situation, and Bailey has to use her fictional detective skills to solve a real murder and keep her grandmother from ending up bee-hind bars.
Oh, and did I mention that upon arriving in town, she runs into Sawyer Dunn, the love of her life, whom she hasn’t seen in thirteen years, not since he got shipped off to his uncle’s farm in Montana the night they stole a tractor and accidentally drove it into a pond? And did I also mention that Sawyer now happens to be the town sheriff?
I had so much fun writing this book! My husband is a certified beekeeper, and he has always told such fascinating stories about the life and habits of bees, that I knew I had to incorporate them into a story somehow. Granny Bee is the beekeeper in this book, and her book club, affectionately known as The Hive, consists of her two spinster sisters (who live in an old purple Victorian called Lavender Manor), Rosa Delgado, and town librarian, Dottie Duffield.
Bailey and her sidekick bestie, Evie Delgado Espinoza (Rosa’s granddaughter), have been described as a mashup of Lucy & Ethel and Thelma & Louise trying to solve a murder.
Because the book features a bee keeping granny, I thought I would share five fun facts you might not know about bees.
- Bees beat their wings 11,400 times in one minute.
- Only female bees can sting. Males don’t have stingers.
- An average hive has 50,000 to 60,000 worker bees.
- Bees communicate through a series of dance moves.
- A hive of bees can create 100 lbs of honey in a year.
And a final thing you may not know about bees is how they get to school…in a school buzz, of course.
Okay, that one was a little too honey…I mean, punny.
Speaking of honey, my book also includes recipes from the characters in the book of some of their favorite honey-inspired dishes, like Whipped Ricotta Cheese drizzled with hot spiced honey, a honey cake with marshmallow frosting, crispy honey cookies, and my favorite, the Cream Cheese Quesitos that Eva and Rosa serve in their bakery/coffeeshop. They’re so good, they’re practically to die for. But maybe not to murder for….
I’d love for you to check out all the recipes and find out who used the hot spiced honey to murder the mayor in Take the Honey and Run. Humble Hills and Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch are full of fun and quirky characters, and I hope you love them as much as I do.
Do you have any favorite recipes that you use honey in? I’d love to hear about them! I’m always on the lookout for new inspiration for the next book in the series, Kill Or Bee Killed, coming out next spring. Tell me about your favorite use for honey in the comments.
About Jennie Marts
Jennie Marts is the USA TODAY Best-selling author of award-winning books filled with love, laughter, and always a happily ever after. Readers call her books “laugh out loud” funny and the “perfect mix of romance, humor, and steam.” Fic Central claimed one of her books was “the most fun I’ve had reading in years.”
She is living her own happily ever after in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, two dogs, and a parakeet who loves to tweet to the oldies. She’s addicted to Diet Coke, adores Cheetos, and believes you can’t have too many books, shoes, or friends.
Her books range from Western romance to cozy mysteries, but they all have the charm and appeal of quirky small-town life. She loves genre-mashups like adding romance to her Page Turners cozy mysteries and creating the hockey-playing cowboys in the Cowboys of Creedence. The same small-town community comes to life with more animal antics in her latest Creedence Horse Rescue series. And her sassy heroines and hunky heroes carry over in her heartwarming, feel good romances from Hallmark Publishing. Her newest cozy mystery, Take the Honey and Run: A Bee Keeping Mystery, debuts this July.
Jennie loves to hear from readers. Follow her on Facebook at Jennie Marts Books, Twitter at @JennieMarts, and at jenniemartswriter on Instagram. Visit her at www.jenniemarts.com and sign up for her newsletter to keep up with the latest news and releases.
Purchase Links
Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Bookshop.org – Alibris
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