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The Beekeeper: A Thrilling Police Procedurals Mystery With a Woman Sleuth (The First Detective Elizabeth Stratton Mystery Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Juliet Moore (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 462 ratings
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**Amazon Charts Bestseller**

IT TURNS OUT HONEY ISN'T SO SWEET...

When a mysterious woman is found brutally murdered in a bee-infested hotel room, her mouth filled with poisonous honey, Miami detective Elizabeth Stratton is tasked with unravelling the case and bringing a murderer to justice.

But it soon becomes clear this case isn't so cut-and-dry. On the trail of a dangerous serial killer with a unique calling card, Elizabeth is left scratching her head as the case continues to get weirder. Solving this mystery will force her to take an unorthodox approach - a crash course in beekeeping to discover the secret of poisonous honey.

With a terrible storm looming on the horizon and time running out before the killer strikes again, Elizabeth finds herself in a desperate race to unmask the murderer. But when the bees follow her home, she'd better make sure she doesn't become another victim herself...

If you love hair-raising mysteries packed with suspense and a sense of danger, then you won't want to miss the gripping first book in the Elizabeth Stratton series. Grab your copy today!


What readers are saying:

"I couldn't put this book down, after I read the first page. It's fast-paced and it's got everything for a great thriller" - Amazon Reviewer

"A sit on the edge of your seat mystery." - Amazon Reviewer

"I was hooked from the beginning. The twists were surprising. The characters were great." - Amazon Reviewer
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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 3
    Detective Elizabeth Stratton Mysteries
  2. Print length
    202 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    October 22, 2012
  6. File size
    338 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

★★★★★ I really enjoyed this book, I read it twice. Good characters you can connect with and a good story. -- Amazon Reader

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009PG37ZU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (October 22, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 22, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 338 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 202 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 462 ratings

About the author

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Juliet Moore

Juliet Moore

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Juliet Moore is a Sarasota-based mystery and thriller novelist who is on a mission to create unique worlds that her reader can escape to. Throughout the course of her writing career, she has written various freelance articles and authored two books titled The Beekeeper and The Skinner Box. The release of her third book (The Darkest Grind) is just around the corner. Juliet also ran an advice column in a local magazine and participated in UCLA’s writers program. When she isn’t penning escapist fiction, you can find this coffee aficionada baking chocolate chip cookies, reading suspenseful books, or spending quality time with her two amazing children.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
462 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Seeley James
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as James Patterson
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2012
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The Beekeeper: The First Detective Elizabeth Stratton Mystery

A debut mystery written by a romance writer? Normally I would pass anything remotely related to `romance' (don't scowl, I don't read cookbooks or poetry either). But for some odd reason I was drawn to this book. Maybe I was secretly looking for a little schadenfreude: can you really cross literary boundaries like that?

The answer is No, not usually. Not unless you are an extraordinary writer like Juliet Moore. (You think that's her real name?) Ms. Moore is one of those rare writers who actually studied writing, at UCLA no less, without turning into an unbearable snob or an effete literary professor. And now she brings her skills to bear on the police procedural/mystery genre--with tremendous results.

Her writing is as smooth as James Patterson. Each sentence leads us from one pivotal moment to the next without a single hitch or distraction. She doesn't bore us with irrelevant but beautiful details. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I know what the main character looks like.

Juliet Moore gives us a fascinating education on beekeeping. Some authors would dive into details just to show off. Others (like me) would sketch a plot-point and blow through it with barely enough detail for the reader to know hives may be involved. Ms. Moore provides just the right amount of detail to make us feel like we learned enough to analyze the evidence. Far more information than we get from the aforementioned Patterson. And far less than required to put the reader to sleep. She hits the perfect balance.

I cringed as the inevitable kissy-bits crept into the story. I just knew a romance writer couldn't get through a whole novel without a sex scene. But I bravely read through it and am happy to report: it was very well done. The apparent virgins who star in James Rollins and Sue Grafton stories could learn a thing or two from Ms. Moore. Again, she struck the right balance.

Her build up to the exciting conclusion, and it was very exciting, was extremely well done. Every thread of story line came together in the end. As the hurricane bore down, our heroine was involved in a questionable shooting, and the killer was revealed. A kidnap victim, an abandoned farmhouse, a psychotic killer, and a storm converged for the perfect climax.

My only complaint: I wanted more*. Readers should be aware that this is a very short book. The mysteries I read lean toward 80-100,000 words. I'm guessing this is half that. The fact that it was short did not lessen my enjoyment in the least. It was fully formed, had all the clues we needed, and the characters and subplots were excellent.
Bottom Line: buy this book, and get on her list for the next one. I will be hounding her for a sequel, join me!

Peace, Seeley

Special NOTE: MY REVIEWS ARE MY REACTIONS TO THE BOOKS I READ and not a response to the voices in my head. I have no relationship, financial or familial, with the authors. I do not expect, but would not refuse, any reciprocal reviews or recommendations. Just sayin.

* No pun intended.
34 people found this helpful
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Helene Stephens
4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Debut Mystery: Here's Where the Bees Are!
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2014
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Very impressive debut novel by author, Juliet Moore. The plot was strange and unusual, perhaps even a bit over-the-top, but original, different, and certainly not boring.

In this first book of a series, we meet Detective Elizabeth Stratton, who is on a disciplinary suspension from the police force for (we assume) a reckless shooting death. She's reinstated, and as the story moves, we'll see that she is quick to reach for her gun; I almost saw her as a potential female version of John Sanford's Lucas Davenport--there's definitely a bit of the "rogue cop" about her. I liked the character, and the book, from the first, held promise of an action-oriented protagonist.

I believe this is the first murder mystery where a serial killer's chosen instrument of death was a swarm of stinging bees. That struck me as bizarre, strange, and perversely intriguing. The story is fast on delivery, not padded, and the reader is hurled into the crime chaos right from the start. Sometimes the "first of a series" throws too much back-story information out there, and it gets in the way of the plot. I think Ms. Moore gave us just enough so that we could infer past events and be introduced to issues in a way that didn't clutter the current action.

I found the details about bees and beekeeping to be very interesting (despite, or maybe because of, the fact that I am terrified of bees). There was some romance/sex and again, I thought of early Davenport. If you think you'd like to see a female in the role of Sanford's popular cop, you'll probably enjoy Detective Elizabeth Stratton.

OK, I did not care for her tobacco-chewing partner, and I say "Yuck" to reading about how he discards his chaw and hides it under paper, etc. I found that almost as repulsive as the bee stings and the gloppy honey. I hope Elizabeth gets a new partner, or that she convinces him to chuck the chaw.

I'm not sure ALL that convoluted excitement (a hurricane, a huge mass of bees, fire, a psychopath, etc.) was needed in the resolution of a plot that was a bit "out there" to begin with, but it kept my interest and I will say, again, that I was not bored.

I'm anxious to see what Ms. Moore has planned for Detective Stratton in the future.
5 people found this helpful
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Primefan13
3.0 out of 5 stars Decent book but very short
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2013
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This is a good mystery and the beekeeping aspect does make it pretty creepy. However, it is very short which I did not realize when I purchased it. The characters are pretty superficial but if you want a quick, decent read it is okay.
One person found this helpful
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Denise G.
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2014
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'The Beekeeper' was full of action, suspense and mystery. The storyline was great. I was hooked from the beginning. The twists were surprising. The characters were great. Elizabeth made a great lead. I liked the authors attention to detail, which didn't include overly descriptive characters. The way the storyline played out kept me on edge until the end. A great read. I look forward to reading more in this series.
One person found this helpful
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Elliott L. Wong
4.0 out of 5 stars Murder Mystery
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2013
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As far as murder mysteries go, this is a pretty good one. The story line holds one's interest until the very end. Things or situations are never what they seem, until the mystery becomes unraveled. The book seems to be well thought out before putting to words. Some of the language is a bit juvenile, but not enough to turn the reader off. Recommended for mystery lovers.
2 people found this helpful
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JTrav
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2012
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I snatched up the Kindle edition of this book on a flight back home from New York. I got suckered in because I'm a beekeeper, and I'm glad I did. This was a real page turner. Nice plot twists and a quick read that kept my attention the whole book. And on the beekeeping side, the author did an impeccable job on her research; very accurate and blended into the story quite well. Looking forward to more novels in this series.
4 people found this helpful
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Nancy Senn
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting plot involving murder by honey
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2013
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Some good twists in the mystery and lots of info on bees make this an interesting read, though it wasn't one I couldn't put down. I might try another Detective Elizabeth Stratt in this series just to see how the character develops.
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Loisrae Mitchell
4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth the read!
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2020
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I learned more about bees than I ever wanted to, but don't dislike them quite as much. The story was engrossing even though Stratton seemed like a Charlie's Angel wannabe!
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Hans B. SÜW
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, quick read with a few issues
Reviewed in Germany on November 9, 2012
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First the good news: the story is - for the most part - very fluid and consistent, the characters quite well developed.
Its a good, relatively fast read book that I would recommend to anyone as an entertainment read. Don't expect deeply twisted plotlines, just enjoy.

The negative side is twofold. For one thing, the book seems to be financed by advertising. I've never read a book that has so many references to real-life products and brands - this one is chuck full of them. Perhaps that is the new model of Kindle publishing: give away the book and finance it by "commercials" that are part of the story. I found it a bit annoying, to be quite honest - I'd prefer to pay for a novel and not be inundated by advertising.
The second issue is one of continuity - there were several pretty serious errors as the book went on. To me, this was more of a "whoops, someone didn't pay attention". As an author myself, I know how difficult it is to catch this type of error if you don't have a professional editor going through the text for you. Perhaps the result of self-publishing will be to get book updates as errors are removed, much like software updates...

Again, quite a good read for entertainment purposes, some interesting facts about beekeeping. I'll be looking for the next Elizabeth Stratton story to come out.
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Liz
5.0 out of 5 stars The Beekeeper
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2012
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Once I started this book, I was unable to put it down. It was one of those books that keep you ineterested until the last page. It is a bit morbid, but a really good read. Would like to read another of this authors book.
2 people found this helpful
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The Glebe
4.0 out of 5 stars We need them!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2014
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As well as being a first rate detective novel this provides a fascinating insight into the lives of the bees and their keepers to whom we horticulturalists owe a great debt.
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darl
3.0 out of 5 stars not deep but interesting bee facts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2012
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Interesting bee facts , not very deep plot could have been fleshed out more. Several loose ends on the way. Would read another if there is a series.
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fumbletrunk
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2013
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I couldn't put this book down, an extremely enjoyable. I read will certainly read more books written by this author
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