One Must Tell the Bees is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that retells the story of Holmes’ very first case, which happens to be on US soil!
Title: One Must Tell the Bees
Author: J. Lawrence Matthews
First Published: May 22, 2021
Publisher: East Dean Press
Genres: Mystery,
Acquired: from the publicist
*** Thank you to Ellen at Books Forward for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
“President Lincoln is assassinated in his private box at Ford’s!”
When those harrowing words ring out during a children’s entertainment in Washington, D.C. the evening of Friday, April 14, 1865, a quick-thinking young English chemist named Holmes grabs Tad Lincoln, the 12 year-old son of the dying President and races the boy out the theatre and into a city convulsed by the shooting of the man known as the Great Emancipator—and soon finds himself on the hunt for John Wilkes Booth.
This is the extraordinary untold story of how that young chemist and a freed slave boy named Abraham tracked Booth through backwoods Maryland and across the Potomac River to the tobacco barn where Booth died.
A very solid Sherlock Holmes pastiche
When I was asked to read and review One Must Tell the Bees, I jumped at the chance to read a new Sherlock Holmes pastiche. I’ve been reading a lot of them lately and it’s always fun to see how another author approaches one of the most iconic characters in literature.
The tone and feel of this story will be familiar to anyone who has read Arthur Conan Doyle’s work. The writing is very reminiscent of the original Holmes stories, but with a big twist.
One Must Tell the Bees reimagines Holmes’ origin story. The year is 1918 and Dr. Watson has just received a summons and a manuscript from his old friend Holmes (now retired). As Watson makes his way to meet with Holmes, he starts to read the document and realises that it is the story of Holmes’ very first case, written down by Holmes himself. Details of Holmes time in the United States are brought to light during this tale, and his involvement in the Civil War. Yes, you read that right – Sherlock Holmes very first case was in the United States.
The tale moves along at a leisurely pace, unwrapping details of the mystery and how Holmes solved it. There are a lot of historical details and both historical and fictional characters populate the story with ease and mesh together seamlessly.
The title, of course, comes from the old tradition of beekeepers to “tell the bees” of any important news. I’ve heard of this custom in many different stories and it always sounds so charming. For those that haven’t heard of it before, (from Wikipedia): “Telling the bees is a traditional custom of many European countries in which bees would be told of important events in their keeper’s lives, such as births, marriages, or departures and returns in the household. If the custom was omitted or forgotten and the bees were not “put into mourning” then it was believed a penalty would be paid, such as the bees leaving their hive, stopping the production of honey, or dying.”
Filled with historical details
This isn’t a light read – the book is quite long and there is a lot of historical detail to wade through. I don’t have a huge interest in US history, so the slow pacing and detailed description of the Civil War was a bit slow for me, but I understand the need for it as it added a lot of background to the story.
I did enjoy this new take on Sherlock Holmes and seeing his first and “last” case. This book is definitely ambitious and aims to cover a lot of Holmes’ history (both canon and newly created) and it was a very interesting take at a character that is so well known.
After reading a variety of Holmes pastiches, this is definitely one that falls into the “feels like the real thing” category. It would have been a perfect read if it had been a touch shorter (I don’t really have the time for long books these days) and (for me) a bit lighter on the US history (not a subject I prefer reading about), but it’s definitely a great addition to the secondary world of Sherlock Holmes.
Read One Must Tell the Bees for yourself
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