Honey Drop Dead - A Review & Giveaway

 Review

HONEY DROP DEAD by Laura Childs
The Twenty-Sixth Tea Shop Mystery 

With its nearby bee hives, picturesque Petigru Park is the perfect setting for Theodosia Browning's Honeybee Tea. The delightful and delicious event for Imago Gallery is cut short when a beekeeper approaches and sprays noxious fumes. In the ensuing chaos a shot rings out and Osgood Claxton III, candidate for state legislature, is found dead. Known to be a connected and dirty politician with fingers in multiple pies, Theo is warned to stay clear of the investigation. But when the gallery owner begs Theo to help solve the murder, she just can't resist.  

Theodosia Browning and the Indigo Tea Shop Crew are knee deep in tea events once more. The gang is catering events such as the Honeybee Tea as well as special parties at the Indigo Tea Shop like the Wind in the Willows party and running the shop itself, yet they still have time to not only attend trunk shows and go out to dinners, but investigate another murder. I really love the details about the various teas and tea events as well as descriptions of Charleston and the various locations, making me feel that I'm actually in the Lowcountry.

HONEY DROP DEAD is a fast paced mystery fit for adrenaline junkies. With shootings and multiple chases, danger for Theo and Drayton reaches an all time high in this, their twenty-sixth outing. It's part of what makes the book eminently readable. You're compelled to keep turning the pages and, if you don't think too much, you'll enjoy the ride. It's when you do think the problem rears its ugly head. While the mystery was very well crafted, the protagonist goes too far. Theo doesn't listen, takes big, stupid, chances, and puts everyone at risk. She's become an unlikable vigilante.

HONEY DROP DEAD is an action packed adventure replete with delectable food descriptions and divine tea inspiration.

*************************************************************************

 Honey Drop Dead (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs

About Honey Drop Dead

Honey Drop Dead (A Tea Shop Mystery)
Cozy Mystery 26th in Series
Setting – South Carolina Berkley (August 8, 2023)
Hardcover: ‎ 320 pages

The murder of a political bigwig at a Honey Bee Tea sends Theodosia Browning buzzing for answers in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series. Theodosia’s Honey Bee Tea was an elegant affair set in Charleston’s new Petigru Park amid newly planted native grasses and a community beekeeping project. But when a phony beekeeper shows up and sprays toxic smoke at the guests, the party erupts in chaos. Worse yet, a shot rings out and Osgood Claxton III, candidate for state legislature, falls to the ground—dead. Holly Burns, the gallery owner who asked Theodosia to cater the tea, is understandably heartbroken. A man is dead, her guests are angry and injured, and the paintings that were on display are left in tatters. When the police don’t seem to have a clue, when old-line politicos don’t want questions asked, Holly begs Theodosia to run a shadow investigation and help restore her gallery’s good name. Between hosting a Wind in the Willows Tea and a Glam Girl Tea, Theodosia questions everyone that had a bone to pick with Claxton. This includes Booker, an angry outsider artist; Lamar Lucket, Claxton’s political opponent; and Mignon Merriweather, the dead man’s soon-to-be ex-wife. But the investigation becomes a political hot potato following a second murder, the revelation of a messy affair, a chase through a swamp, and a vandalized shop. INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS!

About Laura Childs

Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fundraising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.

Laura specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller (a thrillzy!) Her three series are:

The Tea Shop Mysteries – set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.

The Scrapbooking Mysteries – a slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans’ spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!

The Cackleberry Club Mysteries – set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe’s undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.

Laura’s Links: Website – Facebook

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – Bookshop.org – PenguinRandomHouse –

a Rafflecopter giveaway