Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 2/17/2023 + 2572 more book reviews

Yet another excellent mystery from Thomas about this "enquiry agent" duo. This time it's about a poisoner who leaves them mystified and struggling with all the traps the poisoner has laid out. And it seemed like every time I had ID'ed the criminal, that person got killed. In the end it was someone no one suspected and it wasn't the two main protagonists who dropped the dime revealing the criminal.

I forgot Llewelyn was allergic to wasp venom---and I don't think I'm giving much away here---but when he stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled it out again with a dozen wasp stingers embedded in his hand....Well, that was a bit much. I'm speaking of course as an entomologist, as I really doubt placing a hand into a pocket would have resulted in such. And because the wasps were dead, they wouldn't have been able to contract the muscles necessary to force their venom to flow. At least the author got it right that wasps don't have barbed stingers, which means that---unlike bees---wasps can sting over and over without dying. I not only know this professionally, but also from too many instances of personal experience.

And, to counteract an urban myth, bees can sting more than once without pulling the stinger from their bodies, resulting in their deaths. Bees can extract their stingers when stinging invaders to their hives, like other insects or small animals. However, when it is a large mammal, like a human, the motion of the prey usually results in the barb being pulled out of the bee.

My apologies to those who have this book WLed, but my copy will be returned to my county library.

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