Telling the Bees

Summary (from the publisher): With echoes of The Remains of the Day, an elderly beekeeper looks back on his quiet life, and the secrets of a woman he never truly knew.

Albert Honig’s most constant companions have always been his bees. A never-married octogenarian, he makes a modest living as a beekeeper, as his father and his father’s father did before him. Deeply acquainted with the workings of the hives, Albert is less versed in the ways of people, especially his friend Claire, whose presence and absence in his life have never been reconciled.

When Claire is killed in a seemingly senseless accident during a burglary gone wrong, Albert is haunted by the loss, and by the secrets and silence that hovered between them for
so long. As he pieces together the memories of their shared history, he will come to learn the painful truths about Claire’s life, and the redemptive power of laying the past to rest.

Review: I received an advance reader's copy of this book from Putnam Books. 

Telling the Bees is the story of Albert Honig and his lifelong interest in beekeeping and friendship with his neighbor, Claire.  When Claire and her sister are found senselessly murdered, Albert reflects back on his life and years spent living next door to Claire, and ultimately helps the investigator uncover the truth of Claire's death.

Both Albert's life and the narrative are centered around bees and beekeeping. Bee analogies are made throughout the novel. Each chapter begins with a definition related to beekeeping, which also illuminates the plot of the chapter. Claire and Albert initially bond over beekeeping as children. However, Claire and Albert have a strained relationship and although I assumed that they would be romantically linked, Albert never has a love interest apart from his bees. And in fact, Claire and Albert have a falling out and do not speak for years before her murder. I wasn't convinced that Claire meant enough to Albert for her to be a focal point of the novel. At the same time, I felt her sister was neglected in the story and murder investigation, even though she was also a victim.

I found the beekeeping focus a bit forced in this novel. I felt it ultimately detracted from the central conflict of who murdered Claire and her sister. Additionally, I think this novel and Albert as a character would have been much more effective had the novel been told from the third person rather than the first person perspective. Albert tries to convey that he is obsessed with bees to the point where he ignores people's questions, but I doubt he would notice or realize he was disregarding other people's inquiries if he was that truly obsessed. His all-consuming obsession with his bees would have been grasped more easily from an outside perspective. Also, Albert appears completely unperturbed by Claire's death. Perhaps his emotions were omitted from the narration by Albert himself, but I think especially the scene where the two women are found dead would have been more powerful from a third person perspective. Finally, I constantly had to keep reminding myself that the narrator was male, not female. Perhaps that is because the author is a woman and her voice is rubbing off on Albert, or Albert's spinster-like behavior influencing my opinion, but either way I was not convinced that his was a masculine perspective.

I enjoyed learning more about beekeeping from this novel. Additionally, the meandering narrative of this novel that jumps backwards and forwards in time was enjoyable and a happy departure from the typical chronological story telling. However, I would have liked to see more character development for Claire and a more convincing explanation for her murder. 

Stars: 3