Mims Walsh's fledgling journalism career is on the ropes. Hustling as a writer for free weeklies and covering past-their-prime celebrities was not in her plan. With a shrinking bank account and an inability to keep up with her successful friends, there's nowhere Mims won't seek out a career-boosting story-even if it means diving into local community squabbles for a scoop. Between mind-numbing arguments about zoning and liquor licenses, a random complaint that the city's bees are suddenly making red honey may be the opportunity she needs. Mims will have to unravel every tangled lead to get to the truth-from the absurd to the absurdly dangerous.

Teddy Beasley wasn't naturally fit as heir to his family's maraschino cherry business. Drowning in debt from his terrible business decisions and too embarrassed to ask for help, he forms a dangerous partnership that he can't escape. Paranoid, alone, and bumbling through a series of botched romances, the bees he's been seeing everywhere might be trying to tell him something-that is, if they are even there at all.

Setting these two terminal screwups on a collision course packed with comedy, adventure, and New York neuroticism, Blood Honey will leave readers rooting for Mims, flaws and all, and waiting for more from Poppy Koval.