I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Stewart Giles, and Joffe Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

This was an excellent British police procedural/murder mystery. I loved the glossery at the end, for those of us US folk - some of the terms we know from Miss Seaton and Miss Marple, but there were a few I wasn't sure of. DC Harriet Taylor is a very sympathetic character, and lives up to her reputation. Most of her co-workers are likable and well thought of, as well. The crew from Exeter are also very human and most are white hat guys. This was a very welcome change of pace read.

The twists just kept on coming, what I thought would be a bit of light reading, got darker and darker... The reader becomes captivated in the lives that are unraveling before their eyes, I couldn't put this book down!

2 stars

Alice Green whose husband left her ten years earlier enjoys the company of her pet jackdaw. Alice discovers what appears to be the body of her husband buried in her garden. She decides to cover it up – just until Monday – of course. Alice appears to be a thoroughly unlikeable woman.

Parts of Stanley keep coming up out of the dirt; a rain and then a fox digs him partially up. When her friend and neighbor Milly goes missing and her car is found having gone over a cliff, the tension mounts.

Detective Harriet Taylor has just transferred from Edinburgh and has been assigned Milly’s disappearance along with her colleagues.

Alice decides to dispose of Stanley’s body. When it comes up caught in a fisherman’s net a new investigation begins. A man dies in a house fire and it is determined to be murder. Meanwhile someone is held for questioning in Milly’s disappearance.

After the three cases hit a brick wall, a new DCI James is called in to rally the troops and take charge of the cases. After a cursory investigation, James’ team declares the case closed. But it’s not. The murderer comes as no surprise as I suspected them from the outset.

Okay, I have a few problems with this book. How in the heck can a little old lady carry a “large television” set into her house all alone? She has a poor attitude and seems ticked off at everyone except her friend, Milly. Her attitude about her dead husband in her garden is very suspicious. I mean, really? How could she just cut off his ring finger with the shovel? I can see the little finger or the thumb, but a ring finger? Then DC Taylor forms an unprofessional attachment to Alice.

This is rather a mundane mystery. It is simply written, but the plotting is a bit better than the writing. The characters are well drawn though and the reader is given sufficient background to understand them but the amount of information does not detract from the story. The novel is loaded with unlikeable people: Alice, DCI James and DC Taylor are just a few. The team does not seem to get along with one another.

I want to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

The Beekeeper by Stewart Giles.
Milly Lancaster is missing. Her friend Alice Green has her missing. DC Harriet Taylor and her team are investigating. Milly car had gone over the cliff with her in it. She was murdered. But by who? Can Harriet find the out who murdered her and why?
Fantastic read with brilliant characters. I really liked Alice and Harriet. They were my favourite characters. The bodies kept coming but I couldn't think who could have murdered them. They were all connected somehow. Full of twists and plots. Could not put it down. I started having my suspicions about a suspect and I was right. Still an enjoyable read. 5*. Netgalley and Joffe books.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books, a police procedural featuring DC Harriet Taylor set in Cornwall.

Harriet interviews Alice Green when she reports her friend, Millie, missing and is the only one to take Alice's fears seriously. When Millie's car is found foul play is suspected and Harriet is determined to protect Alice and find the culprit but Alice is keeping secrets.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Beekeeper which kept me on my toes. I was never sure initially if I was interpreting what I was told correctly or if it was all a bluff. It's an intriguing start. After that it's all about following the investigation from Harriet's point of view with more information than she has.

Harriet is a good protagonist. She felt obliged to move as far from Edinburgh as she could after some embarrassing circumstances in her life became public knowledge but it hasn't stopped her adapting well to life in Cornwall and fitting in with her new team. She is a kind caring person and her personality brings light and warmth to a difficult investigation.

There is a dark humour running through this novel, more situational than in the dialogue, which makes for good reading.

I would like to read more of DC Harriet Taylor and have no hesitation, therefore, in recommending The Beekeeper as a good read.

This is quite a short murder mystery set the Cornish village of Polgarrow. It centres around an elderly eccentric beekeeper, Alice Green. The story focuses on her Hollyhocks and what she has under them, a missing person, a nosey neightbour, a possible shark attack and an explosion. Its fairly predictable but Giles makes his characters engaging and interesting.
It is written in a light hearted style.
Entertaining characters make this an easy and enjoyable read.

My review as posted on Goodreads:

I liked the light-hearted style of writing in this short crime thriller.

It has a fictional setting in rural Cornwall.

This is a short book, which I read in a day. The story-line is pacey and I found it quite engaging.

There are a few twists in the tale, and a few red herrings, as one would expect from the genre.

The question I ask myself is; would I read other books by Stewart Giles? The answer is yes.

My thanks to Netgalley and Joffe Books for a copy in return for this review.

Detective Harriet Taylor may have transferred to a tiny Cornish town from Edinburgh to get away from violent crime, but she’s in for a shock when elderly residents in her new village begin dropping like flies. It all begins when local beekeeper Alice reports something awful buried beneath her hollyhocks, just as her best friend goes missing… This is a crime novel/cozy with beautifully written characters, Alice is so real, I swear I know her from somewhere. No violence or gore in this story, rather a character driven, sometimes ironic mystery

I found this book highly amusing although unsure if it is supposed to be. A very different take on the typical British crime novel.

An interesting mystery novel with some red herrings and twists and turns as you follow DI Helen solving the murder of 3elderly people in a small town. All though you may think you know who done it some things change and evolve and the reasoning behind why the person did it is not apparant until the end.