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A TASTE FOR HONEY

by

Gerald Heard

Blue Dolphin Publishing reissue now available

with a new Foreword by Dr. Stacy Gillis, Newcastle University

and an Afterword by John Roger Barrie

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A Taste for Honey is listed among the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones, which is the Definitive Library of Mystery Fiction from 1748-1952.

 

 

Synopsis from the 2009 Blue Dolphin edition of A Taste for Honey   Horror strikes when killer bees swarm amok in the seemingly idyllic hamlet of Ashton Clearwater. Even more sinister is the discovery that the angry swarms were programmed to kill by a mad, ingenious apiarist named Heregrove. Leave it to one of the village's honey addicts - the hapless, reclusive Sydney Silchester - to stumble unwittingly onto Heregrove's diabolical scheme. Silchester's sweet tooth leads him to the indomitable Mr. Mycroft, a retired beekeeper possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of bees and a Holmesian penchant for sleuthing. By matching wits and strategies, the persnickety Silchester and the determined Mycroft seek to thwart Heregrove and his stinging minions before they strike again. "We may know whodunit, but the question of 'why' is altogether more disturbing," writes Stacy Gillis, Ph.D., who contributes a new foreword to this reissue of the 1941 detective-fiction classic, A Taste for Honey. Listed among the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones of essential mystery fiction, H. F. Heard's masterpiece became a runaway bestseller, provoking Baker Street Irregulars founder Christopher Morley to declare it "the most original and enchanting crime story of the year." Loosely adapted into the 1967 movie, "The Deadly Bees," A Taste for Honey is required reading for all Sherlockian aficionados.

 

Endorsements for the 2009 Blue Dolphin edition of A Taste for Honey   Jon L. Breen Mr. Breen is a noted Mystery and Crime/Detective writer, scholar and critic. His prolific pen has produced numerous acclaimed publications since 1968.     "More than 30 years before Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Percent Solution opened the floodgates of Sherlockian imitation, H. F. Heard's A Taste for Honey was the first significant book-length Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and it remains one of the very best. This new edition should be welcomed by all lovers of classic detective fiction."  -February 2008   Dr. Stacy Gillis Foreword writer for the 2009 Blue Dolphin edition of A Taste for Honey. Dr. Gillis is Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University     "With a seemingly omniscient detective, a reluctant sidekick and a disturbed rural idyll, A Taste for Honey is firmly embedded in the Golden Age detective genre. Yet it also seeks answers for wide-reaching questions about personal responsibility and ethics, questions which anticipate later developments in the genre. While definitely a paean to the Holmesian tradition, A Taste for Honey does not rely on simple answers—we may know whodunnit, but the question of why is altogether more disturbing."  -May 2008   Dr. Christopher Pittard Dr. Pittard is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, specializing in British Detective Fiction     "A Taste for Honey is intriguing and sinister, somewhere between G. K. Chesterton and John Wyndham; Heard has Chesterton's conviction that the most important mysteries are moral questions reaching beyond 'whodunnit', and he shares Wyndham's fascination with the disquieting, almost alien forces that threaten the quiet of pastoral England. But Heard's style is entirely his own. Few crime novels of the period take quite so much pleasure in language, except maybe for the lyrical evocation of the mean streets of the American private eye, but even then Heard is definitely of the English school; his prose is more rarefied than muscular."  -May 2008   Eric Shirey Mr. Shirey is Webmaster of "the ONLY Amicus Productions website"     "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...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." (read the entire review)  -August 2008   Paul D. Herbert Mr. Herbert is founder of a Cincinnati-based Sherlockian society, The Tankerville Club, and a member of the Baker Street Irregulars since 1977. He wrote a 1982 book on Sherlock Holmes pastiches and parodies, The Sincerest Form of Flattery.     "Starting in the 1970s there was a proliferation of Sherlock Holmes pastiches that is still going on today. The vast majority of them have been written for the author's self-aggrandizement. They also don't capture the essence of the Victorian era (and some don't even try). Professor Moriarty, Irene Adler, a long chase scene, an international crisis, famous personages - one or all of them are often present. The more absurd ones have Holmes trekking off to the United States to solve a case. Having him get married or piloting an airplane as an octogenarian even occurs in several instances. The best thing about all these imitations is they show how good the original stories were by comparison.     "Thank goodness H. F. Heard eschewed the above. His Mr. Mycroft tales are not pretentious but instead encompass the style of the 'old-fashioned' mystery. A delightful read!"  -October 2008   Roger Johnson Mr. Johnson is editor of The District Messenger - The newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London     "A Taste for Honey by H. F. Heard is a welcome new edition of an unusual and rather brilliant detective novel, first published in 1941...As in some of the canonical short stories, the criminal’s identity is evident almost from the beginning, and his motive and modus operandi are easily discovered. Mr. Mycroft’s task is to bring the crime home to its perpetrator and stop him killing again. It’s a task that requires formidable intelligence, obscure knowledge and a nimble brain. The nice new edition, the first in ‘The Mr. Mycroft Commemorative Series’, includes an entertaining foreword by Stacy Gillis and a most interesting afterword by Heard’s literary executor, John Roger Barrie.  -October 2009   Peter E. Blau Mr. Blau is editor of Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, and a member of the Baker Street Irregulars since 1959, serving as its current secretary     "Christopher Morley called H. F. Heard's A Taste for Honey (1941) "the most original and enchanting crime story of the year," and it is grand to have the book back in print as the first in "The Mr. Mycroft Commemorative Series". The book is about "Mr. Mycroft" (many have suspected he's really an elderly and retired Sherlock Holmes); the book was adapted for television as "The Sting of Death" (1955) with Boris Karloff as Mr. Mycroft (kinescopes survive, but are not available commercially), and the film "The Deadly Bees" (1967) was based on the book, with a script by Robert Bloch (who was so annoyed when a British writer removed the Mr. Mycroft character and "juiced up the script" that Bloch never saw what he called his "deformed offspring"). The new edition has an informative foreword by Stacy Gillis, and an interesting afterword by John Roger Barrie, who addresses the question, "Who Is Mr. Mycroft?"  -October 2009

 

The Deadly Bees - now available on DVD   A Taste for Honey was loosely adapted into 1967’s The Deadly Bees, the first in the killer-bees genre. The Deadly Bees was issued for the first time on DVD in July 2008.   (Boris Karloff played Mr. Mycroft in the ABC TV adaptation of A Taste for Honey, which aired in 1955.)

 

Featured reviews of The Amazing Mycroft Mysteries (Vanguard's 1980 compilation of all three Mr. Mycroft novels)   Walter Clemons in Newsweek (1981)     "[Heard's] best bid for immortality...Cool thought, impeccable prose and icy, highly specialized justice are constants."   Otto Penzler (Proprietor, The Mysterious Bookshop)     "Even if these first-rate mysteries had no Sherlockian overtones, they would be memorable. But they do, and Heard is to be congratulated for pulling off a splendid tour-de-force."

 

 

A TASTE FOR HONEY is now available for purchase at the sites below: USA Amazon Barnes & Noble Blue Dolphin Powell's   CANADA Amazon   U.K. Amazon   FRANCE Amazon   GERMANY Amazon   JAPAN Amazon

Reviews of A TASTE FOR HONEY   Boris Karloff "I thought I knew all the tricks of the horror trade but I never expected to have my hair stand on end when a bee flew in through an open window...A triumph of ingenuity and horrific simplicity."   Newsweek (1941) "One of the ten best mysteries of all time."   Christopher Morley "...the most original and enchanting crime story of the year."   Will Cuppy in The New York Herald Tribune "A veritable triumph of modern mystery...packing plenty of horror."   Rex Stout "It’s an astonishing performance."   New York Times Book Review "Slow-moving, whimsical, somewhat weightily allusive, this tale is definitely caviar to the general; in a sense, it may be called a bookman's book."   Cover copy from the 1964 Lancer edition "...one of the most fiendishly ingenious murder methods ever devised."   Vincent Starrett "Terrifying...perfectly done...The most original contribution in many years."

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