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Ruth Willmarth #4
Stolen Honey
Donna Woodleaf-LeBlanc and Emily Willmarth, both eighteen and in their first year of college, have looked down their noses at college football games and frat parties. So Gwen Woodleaf is surprised when her daughter announces that a frat party will keep them up late that evening. "The school is banning men-only fraternities next term," Donna explains, "so it's the last chance to get the experience of it."
The "experience," however, turns out to be a great deal more than the young women bargained the youth who drives Donna home on his motorcycle is found dead on the Woodleaf-LeBlancs' grounds the next morning. It is unclear how the young man, who had more than his share of alcohol the night before, died, and the police are asking questions.
To some of the local people, the family is suspect to start with. Russell, Donna's father, is part Abenaki and an actor who gets himself up in full Native American regalia and plays an eighteenth-century brave in frequent Revolutionary War reenactments. His wife, Gwen, has inherited Woodleaf Apiaries from her beekeeper father-- at least two hundred hives scattered about the New England countryside, requiring skill and attention if the honey crop is to bring in any money. Gwen is also the subject of gossip because she grows marijuana and belladonna for medicinal purposes.
Shep Noble's death begins to seem more and more like murder than accident, and his death and the LeBlancs' "differentness" incite anonymous threats and harassment from local troublemakers who make Donna's life miserable.
Desperate, she turns to a neighbor, and Emily's mother, Ruth Willmarth, as so many others of the community have done in the past. Ruth, abandoned by her husband, is struggling to raise their children and keep her farm going with little help and even less income. But that doesn't stop her from doing what she can to comfort Donna. She urges her persistent suitor, Colm Hanna, a funeral director and part-time police officer, to go more deeply into the mystery of Shep's death than his police colleagues are doing.
Meanwhile, Donna is researching a paper for her sociology class, weaving it around the story of her Vermont family, with its Native American and French Canadian roots. But tragedy dogs her when her sociology professor is strangled. As Ruth and Colm try to unravel the tangle of the two deaths, it becomes clear that both deaths, as well as the family history Donna is digging into, are coming together in a clashing climax that will leave none of the players unchanged.
The "experience," however, turns out to be a great deal more than the young women bargained the youth who drives Donna home on his motorcycle is found dead on the Woodleaf-LeBlancs' grounds the next morning. It is unclear how the young man, who had more than his share of alcohol the night before, died, and the police are asking questions.
To some of the local people, the family is suspect to start with. Russell, Donna's father, is part Abenaki and an actor who gets himself up in full Native American regalia and plays an eighteenth-century brave in frequent Revolutionary War reenactments. His wife, Gwen, has inherited Woodleaf Apiaries from her beekeeper father-- at least two hundred hives scattered about the New England countryside, requiring skill and attention if the honey crop is to bring in any money. Gwen is also the subject of gossip because she grows marijuana and belladonna for medicinal purposes.
Shep Noble's death begins to seem more and more like murder than accident, and his death and the LeBlancs' "differentness" incite anonymous threats and harassment from local troublemakers who make Donna's life miserable.
Desperate, she turns to a neighbor, and Emily's mother, Ruth Willmarth, as so many others of the community have done in the past. Ruth, abandoned by her husband, is struggling to raise their children and keep her farm going with little help and even less income. But that doesn't stop her from doing what she can to comfort Donna. She urges her persistent suitor, Colm Hanna, a funeral director and part-time police officer, to go more deeply into the mystery of Shep's death than his police colleagues are doing.
Meanwhile, Donna is researching a paper for her sociology class, weaving it around the story of her Vermont family, with its Native American and French Canadian roots. But tragedy dogs her when her sociology professor is strangled. As Ruth and Colm try to unravel the tangle of the two deaths, it becomes clear that both deaths, as well as the family history Donna is digging into, are coming together in a clashing climax that will leave none of the players unchanged.
- GenresMystery
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 9, 2002
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Means Wright
30 books32 followers I'm the author of 18 books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, including 5 mystery novels from St. Martin's Press, 2 historical novels: Midnight Fires: a Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft ('10)and the Nightmare ('11)from Perseverance Press.For those who don't know her, Wollstonecraft is the brilliant but rebellious and conflicted 18th century author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,and mother of Mary Shelley (think Frankenstein).
I've also published 2 mysteries for kids. The Pea Soup Poisonings, based on my own 4 kids'childhood shenanigans, won the '06 Agatha Award for Best Children's/YA Novel,and The Great Circus Train Robbery was a finalist. My latest mystery is Broken Strings, a spin-off from my St. Martin's Press novels with a puppeteer sleuth, and a novel, Walking up into the Wild for "tweens" (ages 10-14, set in 18th-century Vermont just before the end of the American Revolution. It's both suspenseful and romantic and based on family history. Not a mystery.
I've published poems and short fiction for Redbook, Seventeen, American Literary Review,Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and many literary journals and anthologies (Beacon Press, Ashland Poetry Press, Univ of Illinois Press, et al.).
A longtime actress & director,I'm a former Bread Loaf Scholar and Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council. I live with my spouse and 2 Maine Coon cats in bucolic Middlebury, Vermont. "Becoming Mary Wollstonecraft" Facebook page.
I've also published 2 mysteries for kids. The Pea Soup Poisonings, based on my own 4 kids'childhood shenanigans, won the '06 Agatha Award for Best Children's/YA Novel,and The Great Circus Train Robbery was a finalist. My latest mystery is Broken Strings, a spin-off from my St. Martin's Press novels with a puppeteer sleuth, and a novel, Walking up into the Wild for "tweens" (ages 10-14, set in 18th-century Vermont just before the end of the American Revolution. It's both suspenseful and romantic and based on family history. Not a mystery.
I've published poems and short fiction for Redbook, Seventeen, American Literary Review,Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and many literary journals and anthologies (Beacon Press, Ashland Poetry Press, Univ of Illinois Press, et al.).
A longtime actress & director,I'm a former Bread Loaf Scholar and Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council. I live with my spouse and 2 Maine Coon cats in bucolic Middlebury, Vermont. "Becoming Mary Wollstonecraft" Facebook page.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 3, 2019
This book had a very large cast of characters which didn't all work together. They were friends/neighbors, with conflicting interests and objectives, just like a true group of people would have.
However, without the tagline on the cover, I would not have known who the detective was supposed to be, since all the characters were rushing around, trying to find out pieces of the story, and very few of them were sharing with each other. This led to a confusion and some parts of the mystery that remained unsolved.
Overall though it was a very good story, with a believable finish. The part that I found most intriguing was the research in the eugenics experiments, which many people feel were unique to Hitler. They were not, as this book's research shows.
(For those who want more, read on Eugenics in the United States - not a pretty subject.)
However, without the tagline on the cover, I would not have known who the detective was supposed to be, since all the characters were rushing around, trying to find out pieces of the story, and very few of them were sharing with each other. This led to a confusion and some parts of the mystery that remained unsolved.
Overall though it was a very good story, with a believable finish. The part that I found most intriguing was the research in the eugenics experiments, which many people feel were unique to Hitler. They were not, as this book's research shows.
(For those who want more, read on Eugenics in the United States - not a pretty subject.)
May 14, 2021
I was pleasantly surprised by the complexity and intertwined relationships between the characters in this book.
Set in Vermont in the fictional college town of Branbury, a thinly veiled poke at Middlebury. The students who are from local farm families have an uncomfortable relationship with the wealthy students who look down on them.
The native component of the book was honest and true to my experience as a Vermonter.
The mystery is woven in the story and each character holds a piece of the truth that is unfolded from the first to the last page.
Set in Vermont in the fictional college town of Branbury, a thinly veiled poke at Middlebury. The students who are from local farm families have an uncomfortable relationship with the wealthy students who look down on them.
The native component of the book was honest and true to my experience as a Vermonter.
The mystery is woven in the story and each character holds a piece of the truth that is unfolded from the first to the last page.
January 27, 2009
A little light reading to break up some career-minded selections. So far, it has all the promise such a book promises. And the bee references are accurate.
Boo-hiss. That about sums this one up. Not worth my worst enemy's brief time on this earth. To top it all off, absolutely no honey ever gets stolen. And, no, it's not a metaphor for something else, too vapid even for that. Barf.
Boo-hiss. That about sums this one up. Not worth my worst enemy's brief time on this earth. To top it all off, absolutely no honey ever gets stolen. And, no, it's not a metaphor for something else, too vapid even for that. Barf.
July 17, 2010
I shouldn't bother complaining about errors; these books aren't great literature, just enjoyable reads. However, since this one contained a misused name when that turned out to one of the pivotal plot points...well, really. I've got a right to complain.
Read
August 14, 2011Not a bad book but it started out with some very choppy character development which left me wondering who the "sleuth" would be until about halfway through the book. There are several subplots which got pretty well wrapped up by the end - the book got better the farther you read, so I did enjoy it.
October 22, 2007
Enjoyable, but strange.
October 19, 2009
An easy read whose characters were only two dimensional and whose ending was quite sloppy. The author didn't seem to do a lot of planning ahead.
Want to read
August 20, 2013This is my "blind date" book from the library - can't wait to start!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews