Title: The Honey Jam Murder
Author: Meg Benjamin
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Book Blurb:
It’s summertime, but the living’s not easy for Roxy Constantine. There’s a beehive thief loose in Shavano County, and her beloved Nate Robicheaux has hired her high school crush as his assistant. Looks like the perfect time to create a honey-sweetened jam for the summer months. But then the honey thefts turn serious, and a woman is murdered at the biggest barbecue of the year. Roxy thinks she sees a connection between a mysterious honey company and the Shavano crime wave, but her quest for information leads to a terrifying encounter that sends her to the hospital. Now she needs answers, and her fugitive long-lost love may be the only one who has them.
Excerpt:
The more Duke yapped, the more the other dogs became unhappy, too. I heard Lulabelle’s unmistakable bay and Herman’s unhappy woof. That struck me as unusual. Normally, Duke could bark himself into a coma and the other dogs would ignore him.
Something was stirring them up.
My first thought was a bear. We do get them out here, and this had been a particularly bad year for bear invasions. Just the previous week a bear had managed to open the door to one of the suburban homes near Mt. Oxford and done several hundred dollars’ worth of damage while searching for a little snack. Besides bears, we also got the inevitable coyotes and even the occasional moose. Of the three, the moose was probably the most problematic, considering their perpetual bad attitude, but all of them could do some damage to the dogs.
I pushed myself up from the breakfast table, much as I wanted to stay right where I was, and found my running shoes. Then I grabbed my rifle.
Yeah, I have a rifle. Not that I know all that much about shooting. It was my dad’s single-shot .22 that he used mostly for target practice. I’d shot a few beer cans with it over the years, but I’ve never done much more than that. Uncle Mike referred to it as “one step up from a BB gun,” and it wasn’t much in the way of protection. But I knew how to load and unload it, and I kept it cleaned and oiled, just as my dad had done. It wouldn’t be much defense against a bear or a moose, but it would make some noise and maybe encourage them to do some thinking before they decided to charge me or the dogs.
I made sure the rifle was loaded before I started out and put a few bullets in my pocket. That’s the thing about a single-shot: you have to reload it each time you shoot, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I stepped out on the front porch, scanning the immediate area around the cabin.
There didn’t seem to be anything threatening around the main house or the cabin, so I started walking toward Carmen and Donnie’s house. Given Duke’s almost hysterical yapping and Lulabelle’s regular baying, it was a better bet than our place.
My head was throbbing lightly in time with my footsteps, reminding me that I wasn’t in shape to take this on. But whether I was or not, I was committed. Even if I ended up running to my cabin and calling the cops for help, I’d at least have some idea of what was out there causing all this ruckus.
As I neared the house, Lulabelle trotted toward the gate, clearly glad to see somebody she recognized. Duke was nowhere to be seen, although I could certainly hear him. Both of them had been shut into the small yard near the house rather than being free to wander the whole area.
I stepped to the gate, scanning the yard for wildlife, but all I could see was Lulabelle. Somewhere closer to the house Duke was still yapping hysterically. I guessed he didn’t have enough sense to stay away from whatever was causing his excitement, which meant sooner or later he was going to have a very grievous accident.
And then I heard a man yell, “For Christ’s sake shut up, you little runt!”
It wasn’t Donnie, and it wasn’t Uncle Mike, which eliminated the only two men who could be there legitimately. The rifle felt suddenly heavy in my hands. It was one thing to fire in the air to get a bear to run, and another thing to point a gun at somebody and threaten them with dire consequences.
I took a breath and started moving again toward the sound of Duke’s yapping. When I was close enough to see the first beehive, I braced the rifle on my shoulder in firing position. As if I was capable of firing that rifle at another human being.
Maybe I wasn’t, but whoever had just yelled at Duke didn’t know that. I took a deep breath and stepped forward as quietly as I could. Duke was still yapping, but then I heard a heavy thud and his barks turned to high-pitched whining. Okay, that’s it, that’s enough. Duke might be thoroughly aggravating, but you didn’t kick animals, even if they annoyed the hell out of you.
“Hold it,” I said flatly and stepped forward toward the line of hives.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4f1jMVz
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-honey-jam-murder-meg-benjamin/1146402778?ean=9781509259199
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Meg_Benjamin_The_Honey_Jam_Murder?id=DEo7EQAAQBAJ&hl=en_US
What makes your featured book a must-read?
The Honey Jam Murder is the latest book in my Luscious Delights series about Roxy Constantine, the jam queen of Shavano, Colorado. Roxy’s trying to develop a new jam that’s sweetened with honey, but her quest is complicated by a thief who’s going after beehives at local honey farms. To make things worse, Nate Robicheaux, Roxy’s Significant Other, has hired Roxy’s first serious high school crush as his new kitchen assistant. Roxy knows there’s no attraction there, but she needs to convince her ex. When an old nemesis is murdered at a barbecue where Nate and Roxy are catering, she’s back in detective mode, particularly when one of her friends becomes a prime suspect. Is the murder related to the beehive thefts? Before long she’ll be investigating both. And she’ll find herself in real danger when the killer decides she’s expendable!
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card:
Open Internationally.
Runs February 19 – February 25, 2025.
Winner will be drawn on February 26, 2025.
Author Biography:
Meg Benjamin is an award-winning author of romance and cozy mysteries. Her cozy mystery series, Luscious Delights from Wild Rose Press, concerns a jam-making sleuth based in the mythical small town of Shavano, Colorado. Meg’s Konigsburg romance series is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Salt Box and Brewing Love trilogies are set in the Colorado Rockies (all are available from Entangled Publishing and from Meg’s indie line). Along with romance and cozies, Meg is also the author of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix and the Folk trilogy from her indie line. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers, the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers, the Carla Crown Jewel of Books Award from the Mid=America Romance Writers, and the Award of Excellence from Colorado Romance Writers.
Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1/ (personal)
Instagram: @meg_benjamin
Website: http://www.MegBenjamin.com/