The Hive

In this so-so procedural from bestseller Olsen (Lying Next to Me), police detective Lindsay Jackson investigates the murder of college student Sarah Baker, whose body was found at the base of a waterfall in rural Ferndale, Wash. Lindsay learns that Sarah worked at Spellman Farms, an enterprise run by cosmetics distributor Marnie Spellman. Marnie claims that as a child a swarm of bees once lifted her into the air, an experience that later led her to become a “wellness and lifestyle guru before the likes of Martha Stewart or Gwyneth Paltrow.” After a memorial service for Sarah, Lindsay is approached by Reed Sullivan, whose wife, Calista, was murdered near the farm 20 years earlier. Calista had been so taken with Marnie’s philosophy of life that she abandoned her husband and two sons to move there. Lindsay’s pursuit of the truth doesn’t include any surprising or satisfying twists, and the inexplicable suicide of her father-figure police partner doesn’t add much. Readers can safely take a pass. Agent: Susan Raihofer, David Black Agency. (June)