7.2 /10 1 Votes
Country Great Britain Media type Print (hardcover) | 3.6/5 Goodreads Language English Originally published 1941 Followed by Reply paid | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Gerald Heard books, Arthur Conan Doyle books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Taste for Honey is a 1941 mystery novel by H. F. Heard.
Contents
Background
A Taste for Honey was the first of three novels Heard wrote about a Mr. Mycroft, strongly implied to be an elderly Sherlock Holmes in retirement on the Sussex Downs. The novel's two sequels are Reply Paid (1945) and The Notched Hairpin (1949). Heard also wrote two short stories featuring the detective for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: "Mr. Montalba, Obsequist" (September 1945) and "The Enchanted Garden" (March 1949).
Reception
Christopher Morley called A Taste for Honey the only worthwhile Sherlock Holmes sequel, adding that it was "engaging and terrifying". Raymond Chandler called the book "a very clever thriller".
Adaptations
On 22 February 1955, the American Broadcasting Company presented "The Sting of Death", an adaptation of the novel starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Mycroft, as an episode of The Elgin TV Hour.
The novel was loosely adapted into a 1967 British horror film, The Deadly Bees, directed by Freddie Francis. Robert Bloch, who admired the novel, hewed closely to it in his original screenplay; however, before production began, the screenplay was heavily rewritten by Anthony Marriott, removing most connections with the book.