An enjoyable cozy mystery although the chef's brother was a little annoying to me.

Cute premise, but the characters aren't particularly captivating or exciting. The mystery itself was super interesting, but then had a very anti climatic ending and also I had to reread the ending because I realized I finished the book but had no idea what happened. So, I feel like that really says a lot. Probably not going to continue this series, especially since there are so many other better ones out there I keep up with.

Farming tips, a likeable protagonist ist/cast and a good mystery aside, this cozy is better than most because its setting/story covers realistic topics often glossed over/omitted in such novels. For example, Abby was forced to retire because of an injury sustained on duty and gender discrimination; how the neighbourhood homeless are viewed by some property/business owners; small-town homophobia.

I received an ARC from a goodreads giveaway but that in no way influenced my review. It's more of a 3.5 read for me but it's a debut book and the female lead did something I respected so four stars it is.

The protagonist, Abby, was a Las Flores cop before her injury ended her career (which took me to a bad place for a moment as a thumb injury ended my surgical career though I didn't do what she did, start a farmette though some days it's tempting). Abby's most successful part of the farmette is her bees and she's been supplying honey to a local baker, the tempermental French-Canadian transplant, Jean-Louis Bonheur. Abby finds him strangled in his kitchen in what looks like a suicide, which is what her former boss writes it off as. But who cut him down? And what if it isn't suicide, who would want to kill the pastry chef? That's what Jean-Louise's brother, Philippe wants to know when he arrives from NYC. With the help of her friend, Kat, who is still on the force, Abby reluctantly agrees to help Philippe discover the truth about his brother's death.

Abby was never convinced it was a suicide herself. There were too many red flags. In spite of being forced out of his shop by a homophobic land developer and some money woes, Jean-Louise seemed to be planning for his future. Abby has clues to follow like whose earring did she find near the body, who was Jean-Louise's mystery lover, could the homophobic developer be responsible? And every step she follows takes her further from her farmette and that's probably the number one reason I won't ever have one, the sheer amount of work it involves (though I am surprised Abby can do some of it, given how my own gimpy thumb, as Abby puts it, feels).

Abby also inherits Jean-Louise's dog, Sugar, who I can't quite get a read on. Her size seems to vary a little and the very hound dog illustration on the cover doesn't seem to quite match up but that's a minor deal.

Over all I enjoyed the mystery and the recipes and bee keeping and other farming tips that come with each chapter. I liked Abby. I liked that she was a former cop and at least has some reason to be putting her nose in police business (which sometimes strains believe-ability in some amateur detective mysteries.) There is a odd amount of detail about what Abby is wearing though. I would definitely follow Abby to her next mystery.

One detail that's a minor spoiler (there's your warning). Unsurprisingly there is a romantic subplot. It would be nice to read a mystery these days without one but okay, whatever. What I DID like about it was Abby makes the conscious decision to NOT get involved with Philippe because he is a client. I loved that. All too often we see a little lip service to 'oh that's unprofessional' and the detective is immediately sleeping with the client or worse a suspect that just can't be the real killer. I appreciated Abby stuck to her guns about being professional.

I would give it a five, but I was disappointed by her choice at the very end of the book. Hoping she picks up signals and chooses more wisely in another story. I will probably read more :). The mystery itself was well laid out and interesting.

A Beeline to Murder by Meera Lester is the first book in A Henny Penny Farmette Mystery series. Abigail Mackenzie is thirty-seven years old and is hard at work on her farmette (a small residential farm). She supplements her income by being a private investigator (helping the local DA with cases). Abby also has honey bees and sells honey. Her best customer is Chef Jean-Louis Bonheur and his pastry shop. When Abby arrives to deliver his lavender honey, no one answers. She discovers Chef Jean-Louis dead in the kitchen. It looks like he was strangled. Abby immediately calls the police. Abby was a police officer for seven years until her hand was injured (her thumb is not consistently stable which means she cannot shoot a gun). Her friend, Officer Katerina “Kat” Petrovky is the officer assigned the case (Abby is thankful that Chief Bob Allen did not show up).

The preliminary investigation concludes it was suicide. The victim’s brother, Philippe Bonheur does not believe it. He knows that his brother would never kills himself and even had a trip to the Caribbean planned for his birthday. Philippe hires Abby to investigate the crime and prove it was murder. Abby investigates the crime with Philippe’s help in between taking care of her chickens, swarming bees (moving to a new location), handling Sugar (Chef Jean-Louis’ dog), and planting appropriate plants for her bees. Abby can really use the money from the case to help fix up her house (which needs work). Will Abby be able to prove Chef Jean-Louis was murdered? Who wanted Chef Jean-Louis dead?

I enjoyed reading A Beeline to Murder. It is a cute cozy mystery with the lovely setting of Las Flores, California. Abby Mackenzie is a likeable main character, but I wish we were given more information about her. The information we are given is given out in little bits throughout the story (which I found frustrating). We are not given a lot of information about the other characters in the book (I do know that Philippe is extremely handsome as it was mentioned several times). I think the characters just need to be fleshed out a little bit (given life). The author provided good clues to the mystery and provided a little twist at the end. I found the person responsible for the crime to be obvious, but that could just be me (I picked out the person responsible not long after the character was introduced). Overall, it is a good first book. I will definitely read the next book in the series. The one thing I did not like was that the crime happened almost immediately at the beginning of the story. I think we needed a little more of an introduction before we get to the dead person. I give A Beeline to Murder 4 out of 5 stars. The books does provide some great tips on taking care of bees, making good honey, and the right type of fauna to plant for bees (makes me wish I was not allergic to them).

I received a complimentary copy of A Beeline to Murder from NetGalley (and the publisher) in exchange for an honest review.

http://bibliophileandavidreader.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-beeline-to-murder.html

I think this is going to be an interesting new series. Abby is a former police officer turned farmer. When Abby finds her friend Chef Jean-Louis dead in his bakery, she can't believe it is suicide and sets out to prove the police wrong.

This book read like it was further in the series than book 1, there wasn't a lot of back story at the beginning, you read about it as the book progressed which is what I normally see in later books in a series, enough back story to remind you of how the series was set up without rehashing the whole thing.

The killer was sort of easy to figure out once you got about 1/2 way through if you pick up on a few clues, but you don't really know why until further on in the book. The up side is that Abby isn't put into a predicament with the killer at the end but is able to help the police find the true killers.

The book has recipes and hints about raising bees and a few other tidbits that are interesting related to farming/gardening.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest reveiw. This is the first book I have read by this author. I found the writing to be enjoyable and the plot and characters to be well developed. I also liked the background and education on bee keeping. This was a pleasant read and I will look for other books written by this author.