A Taste for Honey

by H. F. Heard, Otto Penzler (Introduction)

Overview

In the countryside of Victorian England, a recluse and a beekeeper team up to catch a cunning villain.

In a quiet village far from the noise of Victorian London, Sydney Silchester lives the life of a recluse led by two passions: privacy and honey. He gives up the former only when his stores of the latter run low. But when his honey supplier is found stung to death by her hive, the search for a new beekeeper takes Sydney to Mr. Mycroft, a brilliant man who has retired to Sussex to take up precisely this occupation, and who shares many traits with the great detective, Sherlock Holmes. Upon hearing of the tragic death of the village’s other beekeeper, Mycroft, himself no stranger to crime-solving, immediately senses the bloody hand of murder. But what villain would have the mad intelligence to train an army of killer bees? With Sydney at his side, Mycroft embarks on a life-threatening search for the perpetrator of this most diabolical crime.

Hailed by author, critic, and famed Sherlock Holmes scholar Christopher Morley as the only worthwhile continuation of the Holmes novels, A Taste for Honey is an engaging and terrifying mystery that proves enjoyable even to those with little to no knowledge of Doyle’s characters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613161210
Publisher:	Penzler Publishers
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Series:	An American Mystery Classic
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	930,183
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

The English social historian and author of science and mystery fiction Henry Fitzgerald Heard (1889-1971) was born in London, studied at Cambridge University, then turned to writing essays and books on historical, scientific, religious, mystical, cultural, and social subjects, signing them Gerald Heard, the name under which all his non-fiction appeared. He moved to the United States in 1937, accompanied by his friend Aldous Huxley, and soon afterwards founded a college to teach meditation and other spiritual practices.

Mr. Mycroft appeared in two additional novels by Heard: Reply Paid (1942) and The Notched Hairpin (1949). Among Heard’s other science fiction and mystery novels, perhaps his best-known work is the short story “The President of the U. S. A., Detective,” which won the first prize in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s contest in 1947.

Otto Penzler, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975); MysteriousPress.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from NoirCon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.

Editorial Reviews

01/14/2019

A love of honey leads Sydney Silchester, the curmudgeonly narrator of this solid entry from Heard (1889–1971) in the American Mystery Classics series, to the door of the Heregroves, the only beekeepers in the environs of the English village of Ashton Clearwater. When, some months later, Mrs. Heregrove is stung to death by a swarm of her own bees, Silchester is distressed: how will he satisfy his sweet tooth? Out for a walk, he notices a neatly written sign posted on a gate advertising surplus honey. Up the garden path he goes and meets Mr. Mycroft, whom he subsequently describes as “a very remarkable man... a little vain and fanciful and rather exhausting to be with.” Mycroft embraces him as a Watson-like companion in adventure, and the game is afoot as they investigate the bee-stinging death. At the time of its first publication in 1941, this novel was met with great rejoicing among Sherlock Holmes fans, though contemporary readers may struggle to care about Silchester and his schemes. That said, there is fun to be had in reading Silchester’s self-absorbed narration. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Sinister, the suspense cuts down respiration 40%, and it’s a tale well and truly told."

Rex Stout

"Diabolic … Whimsical … Sly
"

The New York Times

"I enjoyed it hugely"

Vladimir Nabokov

"A triumph of ingenuity and horrific simplicity"

Boris Karloff

"A very clever thriller"

Raymond Chandler