He Should Have Told the Bees by Amanda Cox

A tradition among beekeepers is to let the bees know when their owner has died as is portrayed in Amanda Cox’s latest Christian fiction, He Should Have Told the Bees, which was published August 1. George Walsh brought up his young daughter Beckett alone when her mother Lindy deserted them. George taught Beck everything he knew about beekeeping before he died, leaving the 60-acre farm to Beck but also to someone named Callie Peterson who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Beck suffers from agoraphobia so when her father dies, she has a hard time facing the outside world. She is content caring for the bees, producing honey for sale, and taking care of a horse, a donkey, and some goats. She would rather pay a teen to deliver her groceries and animal supplies rather than to go to Sweetwater, Tennessee, herself. When she learns that she is to share ownership of Walsh Farm with a stranger who leans toward selling the property rather than keeping it, Beck becomes very upset with her father, leaving half the property to a stranger.

Who is this mysterious person who now owns half of Walsh Farm? What should Callie do when she has never even heard of the man endowing her with half his farm? She would love to sell it to finance her own dreams of opening a store to sell the candles and soaps she makes. Furthermore, she has the responsibility to provide treatment for her mother who is currently in rehab dealing with her alcoholism and mental health issues.

When Beck and Callie finally sit down to hash things out, they learn there exists a web of secrets in both of their lives, one of which makes their surprising relationship clear. How can they satisfy both their needs with the Walsh Farm?

Amanda Cox, with a bachelor's degree in Bible and theology and a master's degree in professional counseling, finds she enjoys telling stories and tending her honeybees. Her two previous books--The Edge of Belonging and The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery--won the Christy Award Book of the Year in 2021 and 2022. She lives in Tennessee with her family. 

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

Combine one-part haunted house with one-part unreliable narrator to equal a chilling debut novel, The Stranger Upstairs, by Lisa M. Matlin, due out September 12. Sarah Slade, who works as a media influencer and a mental health counselor, decides the best way to start over with her life and her crumbling marriage is to buy and flip a house in which people were murdered because she believes she will make a ton on the investment.

Apparently, nothing fazes Sarah, an unlikable character, as she has chosen to make her bedroom the same second floor one in which a married woman was bludgeoned with a hammer, the  blood stain on the floor firmly entrenched even after decades have gone by.  Undaunted, Sarah sleeps alone there as her husband Joe Cosgrove plays video games until 3 a.m. and sleeps on the couch downstairs in the living room.

Not long after moving in, Sarah begins hearing footsteps in the attic. Then she starts finding sticky notes on places like her laptop. She already knows that the neighbors have long wanted Sarah’s house bulldozed because of the murder that happened there decades ago. In talking to one neighbor, Sarah learns that someone had purchased the home before her, and that woman was missing along with her dog.

Like those before her, Matlin has crafted a story in which the haunted house is just as much a character as Sarah and Joe. A bloody hammer in a cradle and footprints in the dust  in the top-most floor add to Sarah’s belief that there is a stranger in the attic. However, the attic is not the only thing harboring secrets as Sarah and Joe have skeletons in their past as well.

Lisa M. Matlin switched from songwriting as a guitarist in a rock band to story writing. She lives in Australia, the setting for her first novel. She offers a narrative about her own struggles with mental health at the end of the book.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting September 4, 2023.

I would like to thank Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.