TUESDAY POTPOURRI: INTROS/TEASERS — THE DEATH OF BEES — NOV. 6

 

 

Welcome to another Tuesday Potpourri, in which we celebrate bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; to Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Today I’m spotlighting an ARC from Amazon Vine:  The Death of Bees, by Lisa O’Donnell.

 

Intro: (Prologue)

Eugene Doyle, Born 19 June 1972.  Died 17 December 2010, aged thirty-eight.

Isabel Ann Macdonald.  Born 24 May 1974.  Died 18 December 2010, aged thirty-six.

Today is Christmas Eve.  Today is my birthday.  Today I am fifteen.  Today I buried my parents in the backyard.

Neither of them were beloved.

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Teaser:  Nelly smiles at me, a knowing look in her eye.  We will never tell this stranger where Izzy is.  We are keeping our secret and we are keeping it from everyone.  p. 113

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Blurb:  Hazlehurst housing estate, Glasgow, Christmas Eve 2010. Fifteen-year-old Marnie and her little sister Nelly have just finished burying their parents in the back garden. Only Marnie and Nelly know how they got there. Lennie, the old guy next door, has taken a sudden interest in his two young neighbours and is keeping a close eye on them. He soon realises that the girls are all alone, and need his help — or does he need theirs?

As the year ends and another begins, the sisters’ friends, their neighbours, and the authorities — not to mention the local drug dealer, who’s been sniffing around for their father — gradually start to ask questions. And as one lie leads to another, darker secrets about Marnie’s family come to light, making things even more complicated.

Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, The Death of Bees is an enchanting and grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.

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What do you think?  Ghoulish?  Strange?  I know I’m definitely curious….