Natural Enemy

Homer Kelly #4

by Jane Langton

Edward Heron died gasping for breath, yellow-jackets swarming around him. Had his asthma finally killed him...or something more sinister?

Heron's death affects many people in his small New England community: spinster sisters, a real estate developer with an eye on Edward's property and a long time neighbor, Buddy Whipple.

Enter Homer Kelly, another neighbor, also a Thoreau scholar and an ex-detective. With the help of his nephew, an amateur naturalist, he goes to work on the case.

"Everything is just right. A wry perceptive talent at his best." (The New Republic)

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Langton was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied astronomy at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1944. She received an M.A. in art history from the University of Michigan in 1945, and another M.A. from Radcliffe College in 1948. She studied at the Boston Museum School from 1958 to 1959.

In 1961 Langton wrote and illustrated her first book for children, The Majesty of Grace, a story about a young girl during the Depression who is certain she will some day be Queen of England. Langton has since written a children's series, The Hall Family Chronicles, and the Homer Kelly murder mystery novels. She has also written several stand-alone novels and picture books.

Langton's novel The Fledgling is a Newbery Honor book. Her novel Emily Dickinson is Dead was nominated for an Edgar Award and received a Nero Award. The Face on the Wall was an editors' choice selection by The Drood Review of Mystery for 1998.

Langton lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts, near the town of Concord, the setting of many of her novels. Her husband, Bill, died in 1997. Langton has three adult sons: Chris, David and Andy.

Series:
* Hall Family
* Homer Kelly Mystery

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I disliked so many of the characters in this one, that it was a little hard to keep reading! But the story eventually sucked me in. Two sisters hire Homer's nephew John to work for them to earn college money and he develops a crush on one of them. But their big beefy loud neighbor Buddy is practically forcing himself on them after their father dies from a combination of asthma and yellowjacket stings. Homer & Mary are 'babysitting' their two nephews while the parents are on a trip. As John builds up more and more questions about what Buddy is really doing, he finally gets his Uncle Homer to start looking into things. Spiders are one of John's passions, and they play a fairly large background role in the story. A very interesting plot, with an awful lot of characters to keep straight (but I'll admit I read it quite quickly.)

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

Knowing the who at the beginning of a mystery and spending the rest of the novel on a journey discovering the why and how just doesn’t work for me. I realise that there’s a device some mystery authors like to use where they reveal the murderer at the beginning of the novel and explore other details following, but that takes most of the fun out for me. I simply don’t like it. As in the previous novel, JL did it again AND took it a step further by leaving out even more of the why and how.

I liked other aspects of this novel—especially the characters of John, Virginia, and Barbara—but this isn’t a proper mystery for me.

I’m going to give this series one more chance to redeem itself before walking away. Come on JL! I know you can do better!

[V. Briceland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Langton continues in this fourth installment of the Homer Kelly mysteries to expand upon her unique brand of mystery—a blend of natural history, the wild environments of her much-loved Massachusetts, and her increasing resistance to the usual structures of a whodunnit. Or even a howdunnit.

Natural Enemy with its insect-loving protagonist butting heads with a prescient example of male toxicity, all under the watchful eye of a common barn spider, might almost be read as a playful and knowing riff on the themes of Charlotte's Web. It certainly works to make the novel one of my personally most-beloved entries in Langton's body of work.

[B Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Homer Kelly mystery. Beautifully written but the reader is given no clue, in the beginning of the book, as to when the story is happening. It felt like it was written in the 1930s to 1940s, but all of a sudden I'm reading about an electric lawn mower (!), and then one of the characters writes a letter on a typewriter. Never any mention of cell phones or computers. Some of the women wear pearls and gloves. Shopping at Woolworths is mentioned. There are many beautiful drawings of the old houses and grounds, which further give the sense of an older time. Author lived from 1922-2018. C. 1982/2012.

[Leslie Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never give little mysteries four stars, they’re never strong enough. But this series is marvelous. I’m not sure if it’s the characters or the setting that does it, but I’m awfully glad there are a lot of them.

[Cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable mystery/suspense novel of literary quality.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#4 in the Homer Kelly series.

Homer Kelly series - John Hand visits the Heron house looking for a summer job. What he finds is a family in mourning. A few minutes after he is hired by Mrs. Heron and her daughter, Virginia, a neighbor, Buddy, finds Mr. Heron lying dead in the orchard, choked to death by asthma and bee stings. As Buddy comforts the grieving family, John feels out of place. But as he begins to suspect that Buddy knows more about Mr. Heron’s death than he’s letting on, he goes to the only person who can help: his uncle, Professor Homer Kelly. After years teaching students about Thoreau’s famous sojourn at nearby Walden Pond, the famed transcendentalist scholar feels his memory beginning to slip. But nothing sharpens the mind better than murder, and Homer’s nephew has stumbled on a fine one.

[Eugene · Rating 4 out of 5]

🍷🍷
A clear winner. One may quibble and say that it really isn’t a mystery - and that’s a quite reasonable position, the murder occurs right in front of us as the opening pages unfold - but who cares? A tale so charmingly told, with lots of enjoyable characters, New England flavor, scads of interesting nature notes, many lovely pen & ink drawings by the author herself, and an old-timey villain who gets one booing and hissing each time he makes an entry into a scene…
It makes for a tale supremely worth the reading, whether you call it a mystery or not; I call it a book I completely enjoyed and would happily recommend to anyone.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will give this series one more try, but this fourth book was more about distracting one from the mystery than about the mystery itself. The primary 'detective' in the series did not actually get involved until the last third of the book. Instead it felt like a romance novel gone wrong. Avoid if possible.

[Gloria Mccracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much of Homer Kelly, Jane Langton's usual protagonist, but his brainy nephew John, an appealing young man if there ever was one, is the linchpin in this book. A nice collection of the usual unusual characters add to the fun. The main mystery is not whodunnit -- that's clear from virtually page 1 -- but why and how are the good guys going to stop him.

[Cws]

M Lan

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book in this series. I enjoy how far away from Homer and Mary Kelly she's willing to wander.