Sting of the Honeybee: A novel of suspense

Dan Mallett #2

by Frank Parrish

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Genres: Mystery, British Literature

191 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

This is a pseudonym of Roger Erskine Longrigg

Roger Longrigg was a British author of unusual versatility who wrote both novels and non-fiction, along with plays and screenplays for television, under both his own name and eight other pseudonyms.

Born in Edinburgh into a military family, he was at first schooled in the Middle East, but returned to England as a youth and later read history at Magdalen College, Oxford. His early career took him into advertising, but after the publication of two comic novels took up writing full time in 1959.

He completed fifty five books, many under his own name, but also Scottish historical fiction as Laura Black; thrillers as Ivor Drummond (for which his chief character, Lady Jennifer Norrington was named by HRF Keating in The Times as ‘The true heir of James Bond’); black comedies as Domini Taylor; Frank Parish (which titles feature the adventures of Dan Mallett, a poacher who lives on the edges of legality) - and famously Rosalind Erskine – a name with which he hoaxed all for several years, and who appeared to write a disguised biography of what life was like in a girls boarding school where the classmates ran a brothel for boys from a nearby school. Erskine’s ‘The Passion Flower Hotel' became a bestseller and was later filmed.

Roger Longrigg’s work in television included ‘Mother Love’, a BBC mini-series starring Diana Rigg and David McCallum, and episodes of ‘Crown Court’ and ‘Dial M for Murder’.

He died in 2000, aged 70 and was survived by his wife, the novelist Jane Chichester, and three daughters.

Reviews

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parrish has a number of fascinating characters in this suspense novel set in the West Country of England. Two sisters, Miss Trixie Hadfield (75) and Miss Hettie Hadfield (72), owners of Albany Farm and Stables, a riding school and several ponies, had inherited the farm where they grew up when their father died. Eddie Birch (50s) had lived at Albany Farm until he was 5 and his father sold it to Colonel Hadfield and moved the family to London. Eddie believes his father was cheated out of the property and Eddie wants it back. Dan Mallett (30s) is a handy man who works for the Hadfields and many others and also poaches and does a bit of burglary to get by and to save money for his mother's needed operation. Libby Franklin (23), working as a groom for an entitled family with a spoiled daughter who whips her pony to win races. Eddie will stop at nothing to get the farm. Really. A page turner full of tense situations and a most satisfying conclusion.

[Rick Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good Mallett. More action, fewer twists and turns than #1, but I'll definitely continue the series. This is fun pure relaxing escape reading with a very different "star". Nothing like a British poacher to be our hero