The Hive is a story about a woman named Marnie Spellman whose ambition and ability to manipulate give her a cult-like following. It is also a story of how a detective investigating a murder begins to unravel the myth behind Marnie’s success. When a young woman is found dead at the bottom of a waterfall Lindsey Jackson is called to investigate. When she digs into the woman’s activity before her death Lindsey discovers that she was trying to write a story about Marnie Spellman. Lindsey tracks down former employees who worked on the Spellman farm but none are willing to talk about Marnie or her work. The book switches perspectives between Lindsey’s investigation and what happened on the Spellman farm in the past, which can be confusing at times. Overall the book takes the reader on an interesting ride, although I was disappointed by the ending. This was definitely different from the other Gregg Olsen books that I’ve read but I would recommend it to readers who enjoy a mystery that takes most of the book to unravel. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Detective Lindsay Jackman works in the town of Ferndale in the Pacific Northwest and the surrounding area. Reluctantly attending the dump site of a murdered young woman, Lindsay is reeling from a personal tragedy which is impinging on her working life and wants to be anywhere else while she tries to understand things.

As her investigation gathers pace Lindsay is drawn towards a cold case her victim, Sarah Baker, a student investigative journalist at the local university, was planning a major expose on. Gradually it becomes clear there is a link between the two deaths as well as a local celebrity and her small group of followers known as the Hive.

Marnie Spellman created a media and beauty empire from her home on an island just off the coast but controversy has dogged her every move and she is now reclusive. As secrets she and her Hive thought safely buried are brought back to the surface, Lindsay has to decide what is relevant if she is to bring justice to Sarah and her shattered family.

I am a big fan of Gregg Olsen and his fiction and factual writing but while I enjoyed this book enormously, with hindsight, knowing who did what and why, think it could definitely be shorter and still work as well. The actual storyline is excellent, original and as well written as I expected, but there is an awful lot of information which isn't totally necessary. There were parts of the story which increased my realisation of what was happening in a good way but others which lessened the effect of some of the twists and turns.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the opinions expressed are my own. I enjoyed and recommend this book even with my reservations.

What Are The Secrets Of The Hive..?
What are the secrets of The Hive? This mysterious group clearly holds many, and it’s clear that the group determines to keep it that way.. Detective Lindsay Jackman is equally determined to find out. Engaging storytelling from this author once again. With many threads and many characters, this may feel a little disjointed but it’s worth maintaining this read. An intriguing suspense to keep the reader on their toes.

I love Gregg Olsen’s writing, and this book solidified it for me!

While Lindsey Jackman was investigating the murder of a young journalist, she fell down the rabbit hole of The Hive, a group of women devoted to a wellness guru (Marnie) and her mission. But Marnie’s success came with a price that affected all of those within The Hive, and the secret they harbored for twenty years has begun to resurface thanks to the young journalist who was working on an expose. Lindsey knew there was more to story than just some natural skin care and it turns out the truth was much more deadly.

This was a fantastic story and had me constantly trying to guess what would happen next. I’m happy to say I never figured it out on my own, and the ending was definitely a surprise. Highly recommend!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3985939354

This the third book I’ve recently read involving cults, bees and the perfection of their hives. It’s weird BUT I absolutely loved this book! Gregg Olsen is a hit or miss author for me and this one definitely was a hit.

If you think about Mary Kaye Ash, the home based "beauty" guru, and put her philosophy on drugs then you have the main protagonist of The Hive. Marnie, the "queen bee" is obsessed with bees and their royal jelly. All of her beauty products are made with it. In addition, she forms a community of women who help her with her empire - they are called "The Hive." It's a cult but it's a strange one. These women are encouraged to leave their family, their husbands, children and homes behind in order to fully encase themselves into The Hive. As with most cults, it eventually turns deadly.

This is a terrific police procedural, something that Gregg Olsen does very well, and despite knowing the "who," it is the why and how that is important. If you like good crime fiction then you should enjoy The Hive.

What begins as the investigation of the death of a young journalist turns into much more for Police Officer Lindsay Jackman. Lindsay soon finds out that the journalist was about to expose Marnie Spellman, a wellness guru. Spellman made her name selling cosmetics and empowering young women to reach their full potential. Though she has many followers her closest devotees are known as The Hive. They will do anything Spellman asks...including keep a twenty year old secret. It's up to Lindsay to get to the truth of the matter before more damage is done.

I have read several Gregg Olsen books in the past and this did not feel like a Gregg Olsen book. The pace was slow...the prose was long winded...I was not interested until the very end when the action started to pick up and all was revealed. The story jumps from POV to POV and time period to time period. It was exhausting to keep up. There were also far too many characters who were not interesting enough to hold my attention. I'm going with two stars because I did find the end surprising and I thought Marnie's hold over her followers was interesting, as well as her message of female empowerment...though it was terribly misguided.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Lindsay Jackman is a detective in the Pacific Northwest mourning the loss of her partner/mentor to suicide when she's called out to the scene of a murder. The young woman at the bottom of the ravine is a college student, researching a story - one that is more an expose, and that appears to be about Marnie Spellman, who hawks bee-inspired cosmetics.

The Hive note in the title is a group of five women who were closest to Spellman, the majority of whom were nurses. While the original five are no longer on Lummi island, where Spellman lives and where she creates her cosmetics lines, there are other women who live an work on Spellman's farm and who help with the business.

As it seems all roads lead to Spellman, Jackman picks up Spellman's first book and beings to read it. I'll say here that this book within a book is filled with the usual pablum found in most "you're the owner of your life" type books, except for Spellman, not only is the future female, so is the now.

This is a multi-POV book that also bounces back and forth in time. Specifically, we go from the present in 2019 to the past, in 1999, when one of the women in the Hive (Calista) died under mysterious circumstances. It appears the murdered journalist was hot on the trail of this story and had to be killed to stop her snooping. There's a twist there that comes from nowhere, which I'm definitely not a fan of - I've read mysteries where the murderer is only introduced in the last ten pages or so, and to me, that's cheating the reader out of a fundamental involvement in the story.

Meanwhile, we are told Spellman has some kind of charisma that draws people - especially women - to her, even to the point of women like Calista, who leave their husbands and their kids to go work on Spellman's farm. I don't doubt this happens; Spellman is, after all, running a cult, although she and everyone associate with it claim it isn't.

As we go along with the pieces of the story told by the token cliches -a woman running for Congress, a past-her-prime actress, a woman who faked her own death, and another who blackmailed Spellman to not say anything about what they were doing on the farm. The threads begin to come together, and the reveal of the truth behind Spellman's products is likely to elicit a shrug. It did for me, anyway, as at most I could see the nurses getting in hot water for theft, and not for making items with the ingredient. The substance cited has been in use for quite some time, with its efficacy in this particular, specific use questionable.

The murderer of Calista is eventually discovered, and the murderer of the journalist is not, thanks to a lie from a major liar and blame cast on someone unable to defend themselves. There is a short epilogue at the end that reads like a closing card on a TV show detailing what happened to the people seen on it.

Overall, it's a moderately good read, with a little too much bouncing around in time for my taste. There is also one large issue I have with the book, since I am a beekeeper. I'll give my rating here, and will put the bee-related kind of, but not quite, rant, below.

Three out of five stars. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the review copy.

Spellman's backstory is that she had some kind of epiphany when she saw a swarm of honeybees and they lifted her off the ground and spoke to her. That's fine: people have weird visions or voices in their heads all the time. She claims the bees tell her what direction she should go, and she does. She is, of course, known as the queen bee on her island, and the five women who are closest to her back in 1999 are of course called the Hive for this reason and because they're making cosmetics with bee products. This is fine.

What is not fine, however, is something so basic that it is incorrect in this book not once but three times, and there's another bee-related error as well.

"Pulsing noises lay atop each other as drones bring nectar stolen from the clouds of blossoms that hover over blackberry brambles that line the roads of Lummi Island."

"'contains royal jelly.' From her reading, Lindsay knew that royal jelly was the substance drones fed a bee to turn her into a queen."

""Scout," Calista said, her voice growing weak. "The most important role for a male in the hive.""

Even a cursory look at Wikipedia, or just a generic search would, in 30 seconds or less, return information on who does what in a beehive. I'd expect that a book revolving around bees would get this fundamental item correct: drones (male honeybees) do not gather nectar, do not feed larvae royal jelly or anything else, and are not scouts. Drones primarily exist to mate with virgin queens, and otherwise hang out in the hive, cared for by the nurse/worker bees - all of whom are female. All work that relates to the upkeep of a hive is done by female bees. That includes gathering nectar and pollen, caring for larvae, guarding the entrance, and scouting out new locations for a swarm. Drones, if they are still around when winter comes, are unceremoniously kicked out of a hive to save on resources.

"Nectar is honey transformed."

Exactly the opposite: honey is nectar (gathered by female forager honeybees) transformed (by female honeybees).

A suicide, a murder and a cult.
After a childhood encounter with a swarm of bees, Marnie begins to see a future for herself, one that utilizes the magic of the bees, the properties of the honey and one that allows her to be adored by all. She creates The Hive, which has all the trappings of a cult, members forsake everyone and everything that doesn't benefit Marnie.

Everything About the Island she lives on and the group of women that surround her is mysterious. A young journalist begins probing into the death of one of Marnie's acolytes a couple of years before but before she can tell her story, she too winds up dead.

Lindsey throws herself into the investigation rather than think about her partner who recently took his own life.

All of these pieces coalesce into 1 story as first one sealed cell of the hive after another breaks open.

The tempo was a little slow for my liking. It did all come together at the end but the telling felt a little ungainly and disjointed.

3.5 Stars

This was a good read that could have been even better having there not been so many cliches (women lying and stabbing each other in the back, washed-up actress, a politician running for an important office, women thinking that life would be better if they looked better, that Marnie and her bees had all the answers...) and had the timeline not been so willy-nilly. I realize the author felt that this was a good way for us to learn what was going on - cults, bees, lies, secrets, blackmail, and murder.

These characters, ALL of them-are so unlikeable that you may want to tear your hair out.

There were too many issues with this book for my taste, but on the other hand, I did keep reading it, so that says something about it! If you have Kindle Unlimited, then this would defiantly be something you may want to try. If you don't have KU, the price is still a good one and will be a good summer read for those of you that are curious and like all the positive reviews.

*ARC supplied to me by the publisher, author, and NetGalley.

I really enjoy Gregg Olsen and his writing and this one didn’t disappoint. It was action packed with a very unique and intriguing plot.

This was very well wry and I enjoyed the different POVs. I was not a huge fan of the women’s rights. And maybe a little too cultish.
Awesome characters and personalities. Really different than my normal genre but wow this was dark and intense.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Love me some Gregg Olsen, and this book did NOT disappoint!
This was a great mystery, well paced, with excellent character development.
We start off with a murder, go to a cult, and every step is detail driven and great.
I really enjoyed the all female "cast" here and Lindsay Jackman, the lead detective is fantastic.
The past and present are woven together seamlessly.
A fantastic mystery read! Thank you for the ARC!

Well, this was a weird one! I don’t think I’ve ever had such mixed feelings about a supposed cult.
A young woman’s body is found at the bottom of a ravine. Turns out, she was doing an expose on a group led by a beautiful, charismatic business woman who sells natural beauty products. The leader espouses a woman’s right to find her full potential. But to the extreme, like leave your husband and kids kind of extreme. So why my mixed feelings? Because a male writer making women’s rights into an evil concept worried me a little. But her “outside in” philosophy is one more sales gimmick.
The police procedural part of the story worked okay. Lindsay is a detective, forced to work on her own after her partner’s recent suicide. A man contacts her saying there’s a link with his wife’s murder from 20 years earlier. The link, of course, is the cosmetics queen bee.
The book is written to purposely keep the reader off balance. Told in an omniscient POV, we see not just Lindsay, but the members of The Hive, the five women that previously surrounded Queen Bee Marnie and Marnie herself. And the chapters also alternate between the present day (2019), 1999 before Calista died and segments from the memoir Marnie wrote.
As the book goes on, the story gets more and more convoluted, with a plethora of characters. I would have preferred more chapters from Lindsay’s POV. Olsen does tie everything up in the end with a satisfying ending.
My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of this book.

Think Mary Kay Ash on steroids: Such is the life of Marnie Spellman, who made a fortune in direct sales of her bee-inspired beauty creams and lotions as well as a loyal following of believer-buyers from her farm on an island in the Pacific Northwest (with some help from TV home shopping network appearances). Marnie, it seems, claims that a swarm of bees lifted her off the ground - yes, really - and in the process encouraged her to found a cosmetics empire and teach women how to beecome the best that they can bee. To help with that, she rallied together a group of devoted worker bees dubbed (though not by her) the Hive.

Although a misstep or two whittled her empire down a bit over the years and the members of the original Hive have scattered to the four winds, Marnie remains committed to rebuilding - and to forgetting a few dark "secrets" that marked the early years - all the while hoping and praying (to her female God) that her devotees would forget as well.

But the past seems to be on a collision course with the present, as the naked body of a young journalist is found at the bottom of a ravine. Police officer Lindsay Jackman, who is still mourning the recent suicide of her mentor-partner, is assigned to the case. In fairly short order, she learns that the dead woman was planning to write an expose of Spellman Farms and its charismatic founder. Then, she learns that another woman with a connection to the Spellman empire was found dead 20 years earlier. Could the two murders somehow be related?

Chapters switch time frames frequently, which always makes a story seem a bit disjointed to me. But the technique does allow readers to see what went on in the lives of the worker bees and at the farm at various times - all of which, of course, build up background and provide possible "connections" that in this case happen at just about every twist and turn. It's also a good way to slip in clues as to how the whole story will play out (and ultimately end). Speaking of the end, there's a handy dandy epilogue in this one that ties up loose ends - some of which were a little surprising (and at least one that was very disappointing to me given everything that happened).

All in all, an enjoyable and well-thought out story. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

The Hive follows the mystery of two different murders that occurred years apart and the cult that is mysteriously linked to them.

Books following a celebrity, famous artist/writer, or in this instance, a cult leader are always interesting because there's always so much you can do with their character. Is Marnie, owner of a skin care business popularized by its use of honey, a manipulative egoist or someone who has stumbled their way into the role of power?

I think a locked room setting could make The Hive a lot more suspenseful and put the focus more on the characters. The perspective-shifting slowed the pace when I was still the most interested in the cult dynamics.

Maybe not as disturbing or creepy as If You Tell, but if you're in the mood for a mystery with some solid characters this could be the book for you.

This author never fails to impress me. I love his true crime book and alike. I was so stoked to read this and it delivered. Thank you for the opportunity to read this early. I’ll be definitely passing along the recommendation

I've read several of Gregg Olsen's other books and enjoyed them, most recently Lying Next to Me. I had a hard time with this one though. I'm fascinated by cults and really wanted to get into this but it started slow and didn't pick up enough to hold my interest. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A recent murder leads Detective Lindsay Jackman straight back to an unsolved murder that occurred 20 years ago. How are they connected? Can she get "The Hive", a tight lipped, group of friends, to talk?
Loved the story line, loved the characters, even the ones I loved to hate! Full of twist and turns, it was hard to put down. Told in alternating timelines and perspectives, you do need to pay attention to where you are and who's story you're reading from.

A murder twenty years ago, and a murder today. How are they linked? It won't be what you expect.
Gregg Olsen manages to weave a narrative that both entertains and thrills, with a twist you won't see coming. The prose is sharp, and the author expertly weaves all the story threads together into an edge-of-your-seat read that builds to a gratifying conclusion.

DNF

I just couldn’t get into this one. I tried to reread this about three times and just gave up. Thanks for providing the ARC Netgalley!