Stolen Honey

By Nancy Means Wright

Book Overview

Donna Woodleaf-LeBlanc and Emily Willmarth, both eighteen and in their first year of college, have looked down their noses at college football games and frat parties. So Gwen Woodleaf is surprised when her daughter announces that a frat party will keep them up late that evening. "The school is banning men-only fraternities next term," Donna explains, "so it's the last chance to get the experience of it." The "experience," however, turns out to be a great deal more than the young women bargained for: the youth who drives Donna home on his motorcycle is found dead on the Woodleaf-LeBlancs' grounds the next morning. It is unclear how the young man, who had more than his share of alcohol the night before, died, and the police are asking questions. To some of the local people, the family is suspect to start with. Russell, Donna's father, is part Abenaki and an actor who gets himself up in full Native American regalia and plays an eighteenth-century brave in frequent Revolutionary War reenactments. His wife, Gwen, has inherited Woodleaf Apiaries from her beekeeper father - at least two hundred hives scattered about the New England countryside, requiring skill and attention if the honey crop is to bring in any money. Gwen is also the subject of gossip because she grows marijuana and belladonna for medicinal purposes. Shep Noble's death begins to seem more and more like murder than accident, and his death and the LeBlancs' "differentness" incite anonymous threats and harassment from local troublemakers who make Donna's life miserable. Desperate, she turns to a neighbor, and Emily's mother, Ruth Willmarth, as so many others of the community have done in the past. Ruth, abandoned by her husband, is struggling to raise their children and keep her farm going with little help and even less income. But that doesn't stop her from doing what she can to comfort Donna. She urges her persistent suitor, Colm Hanna, a funeral director and part-time police officer, to go more deeply into the mystery of Shep's death than his police colleagues are doing. Meanwhile, Donna is researching a paper for her sociology class, weaving it around the story of her Vermont family, with its Native American and French Canadian roots. But tragedy dogs her when her sociology professor is strangled. As Ruth and Colm try to unravel the tangle of the two deaths, it becomes clear that both deaths, as well as the family history Donna is digging into, are coming together in a clashing climax that will leave none of the players unchanged.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312262450
• ISBN13: 9780312262457
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 1.0" x 5.6"

Customer Reviews

exciting amateur sleuth

Though she dislikes frats, Donna Woodleaf accompanies her friend Emily Willmarth to a final fling as Branbury College is shutting down any fraternity that refuses to go coed. That night baseball star Shep Noble takes Donna home, but tries to rape her. However, the Donna's "experience" turns even uglier by the next morning when Shep is found dead on the Woodleaf grounds. The police make inquiries into the death. Though no charges have been filed, many neighbors convict the Woodleaf family because Donna's father is part Abenaki Native American and her mother Gwen grows marijuana and belladonna for medical purposes. As the official investigation begins to look closer at whether a homicide occurred, harassment of the Woodleafs commences. Donna asks Emily's mother Ruth to help her and her family. Though she has her own trouble with little income and raising three children by herself, Ruth coaxes her beau, part-time police officer Colm Hanna, to dig deeper into Shep's death even as she wonders if the murder of a professor is tied to the Noble homicide. STOLEN HONEY is an exciting amateur sleuth - police procedural that never slows down for a paragraph. The story line is fast-paced and filled with a delightful ensemble cast. In her fourth mystery novel, Ruth remains a dynamic heroine. Though there is so much going on the audience will need a scorecard to keep track of what happens with the players, Nancy Means Wright knows the right means of providing an exhilarating tale that will satiate her growing legion of fans.Harriet Klausner

Pure Vermont !

This is a wonderful addition to Nancy Means Wright's series of mysteries set in Vermont. She captures the flavor and the politics of the state so well, and it is always difficult to figure out "who dun it." Stolen Honey illuminates many aspects of the state: the Abenaki population; the old hippy population; the agricultural population; the tight communities among its citizens. This novel provides captivating reading -- because of its mystery and also because of its insight into the rural, complex state.