Brenda H. (booksinvt) -
Helpful Score: 1
A Beeline to Murder is the first in the Henny Penny Farmette mystery series featuring retired police officer Abigail "Abby" MacKenzie. After suffering a crippling hand injury that left her unable to fire a gun, Abby abandons her career as a peacekeeper and is now overseeing her little farmette; raising chickens, tending to her beehives, growing vegetables and fostering her numerous fruit trees.
When delivering her prized honey to Las Flores Patisserie early one morning, Abby stumbles upon the body of Chef Jean Louise Bonheur. The crime scene has been staged to look as though the Chef committed suicide but Abby's experience as a detective leads her to believe that the Chef was actually murdered.
Fellow Police Officer and best friend Katrina "Kat" Petrovsky introduces Abby to the Chef's brother Philippe who wants to find the answers to his brother's death in order to find peace for his ailing parents. It appears that the feisty Chef had a lot of enemies in the small town of Las Flores, including the rowdy gang of bikers who didn't agree with the Chef's sexuality and the landlord of the Patisserie who wasn't going to renew his lease.
The plotline had good potential, but the mystery seemed at times to take a backseat to the romantic tension between Abby and Philippe. The book was a little slow going at times with lengthy, wordy descriptions of Abby's feelings.
I would have enjoyed a little more time spent on the Farmette. Overall, the characters are a likeable bunch and I look forward to the next in the series to see how life on the Farmette evolves, including Abby's friendship with neighbor Lucas Crawford and the antics of newly adopted dog, Sugar.
When delivering her prized honey to Las Flores Patisserie early one morning, Abby stumbles upon the body of Chef Jean Louise Bonheur. The crime scene has been staged to look as though the Chef committed suicide but Abby's experience as a detective leads her to believe that the Chef was actually murdered.
Fellow Police Officer and best friend Katrina "Kat" Petrovsky introduces Abby to the Chef's brother Philippe who wants to find the answers to his brother's death in order to find peace for his ailing parents. It appears that the feisty Chef had a lot of enemies in the small town of Las Flores, including the rowdy gang of bikers who didn't agree with the Chef's sexuality and the landlord of the Patisserie who wasn't going to renew his lease.
The plotline had good potential, but the mystery seemed at times to take a backseat to the romantic tension between Abby and Philippe. The book was a little slow going at times with lengthy, wordy descriptions of Abby's feelings.
I would have enjoyed a little more time spent on the Farmette. Overall, the characters are a likeable bunch and I look forward to the next in the series to see how life on the Farmette evolves, including Abby's friendship with neighbor Lucas Crawford and the antics of newly adopted dog, Sugar.
