Written by Jane Holland🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
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The Hive has been on my TBR for some time now. I won a paperback copy in a blog tour raffle last year and read it during the #20BooksOfSummer20 Reading Challenge hosted by Cathy @746books.com.
The blurb:
The HiveScarred by fire from infancy, with a persistent stammer, Charlotte has always been in the shadow of her glamorous theatrical parents. So it's a shock when her mother commits suicide.
Left to care for her sick father in the dark maze of her childhood home, Charlotte begins to unravel. First, there's the mysterious arrival of a box of dead bees. Then buzzing noises in the attic. People are watching her. Listening to her.
Everyone thinks she's losing her mind. But an old photo suggests another, more sinister possibility ...
The story begins with our protagonist Charlotte Forrester returning from a short break in Moscow with her adoring Russian boyfriend Alex. They return to Charlotte's family home to find her mother, Martha Forrester, a once-famous actress, has committed suicide in the dining room, and her father, Peter, who has dementia, appearing dishevelled and disorientated.
Charlotte has her own issues, but must now take on the responsibility of looking after her father. Fortunately she has the wonderfully supportive Alex, and her father's carer, Harold, to share the burden.
From hereon in, Charlotte's life unravels. She is hearing strange noises in the house; somebody appears to have been in her workshop; she is suspended from work; her father manages to let himself out of the house and goes missing; Alex goes missing and she fears the worst when his jacket is found by the Thames; and there are numerous other strange occurrences. Is Charlotte losing her mind or is there something more menacing going on?
The Hive is told in the first person from Charlotte's perspective, and in the present tense. She is trying to make sense of everything that is going on as it happens, and questioning her own sanity at the same time.
The story is interspersed with chapters relating to bee-keeping. Some provide information about bees while others appear to be a conversation between two people. It took me to almost the end of the book to understand the relevance of these curious chapters, and when I did, it took the story to whole other level of sinister.
I was hooked from the first page. The writing draws the reader in and deftly builds tension. I knew something was going on, but could not explain the what or the why of it. I evaluated each piece of evidence Charlotte presents to the reader but reached completely the wrong conclusion.
The Hive is a fast-paced story which had me baffled right up to its jaw-dropping conclusion. I absolutely lived Charlotte's story with her, feeling her every emotion with what was happening to her, and for that reason I'm awarding The Hive 6Stars!.
A brilliant story, and one I would wholehearted recommend.
| Author Bio – Jane Holland |
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 Jane Holland is a Gregory Award-winning poet and bestselling novelist. Her thriller GIRL NUMBER ONE hit #1 in the UK Kindle store in 2015, and again in 2018. Her latest novel is THE HIVE, a dark psychological thriller. You can find her on Twitter as @janeholland1 Her first novel KISSING THE PINK (Sceptre) was based on the women's Pro Snooker circuit, where she herself was a champion player ranked 24th in the world before being banned for life for 'bringing the game into disrepute'. Since turning from sport to writing, she's published dozens of novels with major publishing houses under various pseudonyms, including: Betty Walker, Beth Good, Victoria Lamb, Elizabeth Moss, Hannah Coates, and JJ Holland. She also writes practical writing manuals such as Writing Prompts for Thriller Writers, along with a sister book for Romance Writers, and other non-fiction books. |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | https://janehollandthrillers.com/ |
| Jane Holland Writer | |
| Goodreads | Jane Holland |
| Facebook Author Page | Jane Hollan Author |
| X | @janeholland1 |
| janeholland1253 | |
Thank you, Jane, for taking the time to answer a few questions for us today. We wish you well with your writing, and look forward to seeing your upcoming novella and psychological thriller on sale soon.
Q1. What inspired you to write The Hive and is this part of a series?
No, this is a stand-alone novel. Many things come together when I’m plotting a novel, some of them unconscious biases, so it’s often hard to pinpoint one thing that would spark a novel. I suppose I was curious about the idea of the hive community, and how it might manifest within a family or even an individual. It’s hard to explain that or say more without ruining the story, though! But certainly many influences in my past played their part, including a very real early love for Book IV of Virgil’s Georgics, which is all about bees, their management and communities. I reference that text several times in The Hive, in fact.
Q2. Was this the first story you had published?
I’ve had dozens of novels published now, but still enjoy the excitement and promise of plotting and writing a new one. It’s one of the things I live for.
Q3. Do you have another story planned or in progress? What is it about and when can we expect to see that?
I’m always either writing or plotting, often at the same time. I almost never take a day off, I love my work so much. I’ve just finished a novella to be self-published under another name, and I’m working on a new psychological thriller for a publisher who’s just signed me up. I can’t possibly discuss the project in any detail as it would be an instant spoiler! I haven’t written a word yet but would expect the thriller to come out sometime in 2021.
Q4. What do you like to do when you’re not planning or writing your next book?
Sleep, mostly.
Q5. What do you like most about being an author?
The continual creative excitement of putting down words that grow into pages and chapters, and knowing another story is always waiting ahead. The autonomy of the lifestyle – though the uncertainty can be awful at times, and in this business most writers are only as good as their last book, which is tough for someone like me who isn’t a big name but does actually make a living as a professional novelist. True midlist authors are a dying breed, I fear, when publishers are so quick to jettison writers whose books don’t instantly hit some magic sales figure. I’ve been hired and fired so many times now, it no longer affects me, thankfully. I just keep on writing and hope that someone out there will want to acquire my next book, or that if I have to self-publish it, the sales will keep me afloat. I have no other source of income but writing, and although my husband works, the pay isn’t wonderful, we don’t own our own home and we rarely take holidays. Of course, I must enjoy the precariousness, the need to live on my nerves and find new paths through the industry, mustn’t I? Otherwise, I would have jacked it in years ago and got a proper job. Not that I’m qualified to be anything but a novelist now!
Q6. Do you have a specific routine for writing?
I used to write 1000 words a day, usually in one short sitting, and considered that a good day’s work. But in recent times, I’ve begun to feel restless with that output. I now regularly turn off my wifi and spend most of the day writing, and can produce 3-5000 words of good quality prose on a regular basis. By good quality I mean not rushed, i.e. editing as I go along and keeping track of continuity as much as possible, so there’s almost nothing to do when I finish a book. That’s because I loathe edits like the devil. When a book’s finished, I kick it out of bed without offering it breakfast; I never want to see it again. Sadly, most publishers like to put their mark on a book with structural edits of some kind, so I usually have to re-read the damn thing and change stuff at some point down the line. With self-publishing, I tend to fix actual errors and let the other chips fall where they may. I love self-publishing so much, in fact, I bet a good reader could tell when I’ve written a book for self-pub compared to a traditional publisher, as I write more confidently and with more flair and comedy when I know nobody’s going to tell me to change anything. That’s just my idiom. But I always listen to editors and work with them on my trad books. A girl’s gotta make a living …
Q7. Are you interested in writing for any other audiences?
I happily write in any genre that catches my attention, and have already written for a wide range of readerships from YA romance to paranormal to straight historicals to action thrillers and contemporary romance etc. I have two unpublished fantasy novels and an unfinished sci-fi that I pick at occasionally. And, before I moved onto novels, I was an award-winning poet and literary critic. My great burning ambition since childhood has been to write for film and television, but after some years of bashing my head on that firmly closed door, I’ve more or less given up. I’m in my fifties now and producers tend to prefer investing in younger writers. But radio may still be on the cards … Watch this space!
Q8. What other names do you write under?
Apart from my thriller name Jane Holland (which is my real name), I also write as these:
- Contemporary romance – Beth Good
- World War II saga/historical fiction – Betty Walker
- Tudor fiction and YA paranormals – Victoria Lamb
- Tudor and Regency romance – Elizabeth Moss
- Action thrillers – JJ Holland
- Feel-good fiction – Hannah Coates
And a few others that I don’t openly admit to!
Ooh Jane! I'm intrigued about the ones you won't admit to!
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