I would like to share a new book with you called The Colonel and the Bee: A Globe-Trotting Adventure by Patrick Canning (Author), Lina Rivera (Editor) which I received a PDF Copy of in exchange for this review. The links inside this post include my affiliate links. If you click on the links and you make a purchase I will make a small percentage from the items you purchase.
The Colonel and the Bee: A Globe-Trotting Adventure tells the story of Beatrix, a spirited but abused acrobat in a traveling circus, seeks more than her prison-like employment offers. More than anything, she wants to know her place in the world of the halcyon 19th century, a time when the last dark corners of the map were being sketched out and travel still possessed a kind of magic.
One night in Switzerland, the mysterious Colonel James Bacchus attends Beatrix’s show. This larger-than-life English gentleman, reputed to have a voracious appetite for female conquests, is most notable for traveling the world in a four-story hot air balloon called The Ox.
Beatrix flees that night to join the Colonel, and the two of them make a narrow escape—Beatrix from her abusive ringleader, the Colonel from a freshly-made cuckold. Beatrix, feeling the Colonel may have the answers to her problems, pledges to help him catch the criminal he seeks in exchange for passage on his magnificent balloon.
The criminal seeks a precious figurine, The Blue Star Sphinx, but he’s not alone. The Sphinx’s immense value has also drawn the attention of the world’s most deadly treasure hunters. A murder in Antwerp begins a path of mystery that leads all the way to the most isolated island on Earth.
The Colonel and the Bee: A Globe-Trotting Adventure can be fun, although there are serious underlying issues, including the abuse that Bee suffers at the hands of the ringleader and the horrific living conditions of the carnival employees and animals which I didn’t like and its the whole reason I chose not to share the book with my son.
The Colonel and the Bee: A Globe-Trotting Adventure never skips a beat and the author has included humor, charm, wit, and mystery. I would call this a drama or Sci- Fi Novel but then when my husband sat down to read the book he said he thought the story was from the Steampunk genre with a morality tales so if you don’t care for dark books I wanted to prepare you but to remind you to check out the book on your own because everyone has different opinions and you might not feel this way.
About the book:
A peculiar explorer and downtrodden acrobat span the globe on a building-sized hot air balloon, in search of a precious artifact and the murderous treasure hunter who seeks it.
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Beatrix, a spirited but abused acrobat in a traveling circus, seeks more than her prison-like employment offers. More than anything, she wants to know her place in the world of the halcyon 19th century, a time when the last dark corners of the map were being sketched out and travel still possessed a kind of magic.
One night in Switzerland, the mysterious Colonel James Bacchus attends Beatrix’s show. This larger-than-life English gentleman, reputed to have a voracious appetite for female conquests, is most notable for traveling the world in a four-story hot air balloon called The Ox.
Beatrix flees that night to join the Colonel, and the two of them make a narrow escape—Beatrix from her abusive ringleader, the Colonel from a freshly-made cuckold. Beatrix, feeling the Colonel may have the answers to her problems, pledges to help him catch the criminal he seeks in exchange for passage on his magnificent balloon.
The criminal seeks a precious figurine, The Blue Star Sphinx, but he’s not alone. The Sphinx’s immense value has also drawn the attention of the world’s most deadly treasure hunters. A murder in Antwerp begins a path of mystery that leads all the way to the most isolated island on Earth.
What dangers await the Colonel and the acrobat?
Evolved Publishing presents a globe-trotting adventure in the tradition of such greats as “Around the World in 80 Days.” [DRM-Free]
MORE GREAT FICTION FROM EVOLVED PUBLISHING:
“Red Clay, Yellow Grass: A Novel of the 1960s” by Richard Barager
“Hannah’s Voice” by Robb Grindstaff
“Fresh News Straight from Heaven” by Gregg Sapp
Meet the Author: Patrick Canning
Patrick Canning is the author of For Your Benefit (2024), Cryptonalia (2021), Hawthorn Woods (2020), The Colonel and the Bee (2018), and Cryptofauna (2018).
His work often blends genres, combining elements of humor, adventure, fantasy, and mystery into stories with imaginative settings, quirky characters, and typos.
Patrick lives in Chicago with his Australian Shepherd, Hank. When he isn’t writing, he enjoys walks on the lakefront, being excited/worrying about AI, and eating his bodyweight in potatoes.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
