The Sussex village of Ashton Clearwater is an ideal place for a recluse with an independent income like Sydney Silchester. It has only one drawback; a curious shortage of apiarists means that Silchester has to rely on the surly Heregroves for his honey supply. Mr. Heregrove, it turns out, has a unique and effective method for monopolising the local honey market; but when he uses it to dispose of his wife he attracts the attention of another Sussex beekeeper, an thin, balding, elderly man with an aquiline profile...
Sydney becomes the go-between for these two potting-shed scientists. One anoints him with strange chemicals; the other plies him with drugs. At last Heregrove's plans are flushed out, and his weapon turned back on himself. The apiarist Bowcross reveals his real name, but Sydney still has to go elsewhere for his honey.
A Taste for Honey was chosen as one of the Haycraft-Queen cornerstones of detective fiction, but from this distance it's a little hard to see why. The story is entertaining and the hapless Sydney is an endearing hero, but the motivation is weak, the 'science' is pure guff, and the bonus, in the shape of bee-lore, is fairly thin. Perhaps they were beguiled by the return of the Master in the shape of an elderly bee-keeper; but the resemblance between Heard's Holmes and Doyle's is fairly superficial. Doyle's Holmes is a man of action; Heard's is given to long-winded speeches about moral dilemmas, and scientific 'discoveries' on a par with those of Drs. Jekyll and Fu Manchu. This is a book for fans of Professor Challenger rather than the immortal Holmes.
Jon.
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