A Taste for Honey
Written by H.F. Heard
Blue Dolphin Publishing - 2008 edition
It really is amazing the things you learn late in life that you can't believe you never came across at an earlier age. A lot of times it makes me feel rather uneducated in the genre and world that I have prided myself on being involved and knowledgeable in for so many years. That's basically how the book A Taste for Honey hit me as I was reading it. There were so many things I learned from this brilliant piece of murder-mystery fiction. Sherlock Holmes had a brother named Mycroft? As a Holmes fan, I should have known this. How has this eluded me for 36 years? That was the first piece of information I learned that put me in my place. Also, author H.F. Heard worked with an editorial board at Oxford University with H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, and Julian Huxley. He worked with H.G. Wells! Now there's a reference for you.
A Taste for Honey is many things. It's a great crime story. A brilliant murder mystery. An education on the wonders of bees. A study of morality. All of these things make up the properties of this little novel. Did the author know what he was accomplishing? It's hard to know.
Without going into too much detail on all the events that take place in the book, here's a quick synopsis. Sydney Silchester is a lover of honey. He gets his honey from a local beekeeper named Heregrove. After Heregrove's wife dies from being attacked by the bees, all of the hives are destroyed. This leaves poor Silchester to find a new honey supplier. He finds one in the form of Mr. Mycroft. An interesting man, who seems to have quite a knowledge of investigation and also is a beekeeper. It is never revealed if this Mycroft is indeed Holmes' brother. From the extremely intelligent deductions and attention Mycroft pays to details, some have actually speculated that it is Holmes himself, using a different name to keep anonymity. Maybe he had moved to the country to escape the ruckus of an evergrowing modernized London. Who's to know, which only adds to the brilliance and mystery of the novel. To keep things simple, after a change of events, Mycroft and Silchester begin an investigation of Heregrove. Did he kill his wife? Is he trying to kill Silchester because he thinks he knows too much and is too suspicious? It's really almost too much to try to describe to you. You need to read it for yourself.
All I can say is, the novel is very intelligently written, as you would expect after reading the small bio on the author. His attention to detail is wonderfully done. It reminds me of Ian Fleming's descriptions of food and clothing in the James Bond novels. Every little detail and thought of the main character (this is written in first person from the point of view of Silchester) is delicately drawn out.
If you love love smart and well-written murder mysteries, my advice is to read this novel immediately. First published in 1941, it can definitely be regarded as a classic that many may have overlooked or never heard of. My advice is don't read the Forward before you read the actual story. It had what I would call some spoilers that might prove more interesting reading in hindsight. If you have trouble finding it or can only locate it at an astronomical price through Amazon or E-bay, it is actually being re-published by Blue Dolphin Publishing later this year. You can go to www.geraldheard.com for more info on ordering and the author's other works.
A Taste for Honey book review
