I really enjoyed reading Bee Conspiracy by David Boito in which an old-fashioned LAPD officer and a US Fish and Wildlife Special Agent investigate an ultra-greedy businessman who foments mass-hysteria associated with aggressive African bees to prompt the mayor’s office to exterminate the city’s biological bees and so create a lucrative market for his patented, electronic bee.

Special Agent Kelso Bagley, an entomologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service teams ups with Det. John Alan “Duke” Wayne, a middle-aged LA detective to investigate the death of Howard Skulberry, a UCLA entomologist, who died after bees attacked and stung him in his front yard. Duke assumes the death is accidental, but Kelso disagrees. And the media is attempting to create a sensational killer bee danger in Los Angeles.

The CEO of Sage Chemical Gordon Lund has hatched a scheme and Skulberry was in possession of a key piece of technology – a prototype of an artificial bee. Lund and several associates have prepared well and are ready to unleash a bee-storm on the city with the obvious solution being a bee eradication plan. This of course would be devastating to the ecology with no bees to pollinate crops and that’s why Lund’s artificial bees will become so valuable – and lucrative.

The story is very well-written, the characters’ back stories are well-developed and interact realistically. The plot ticks along at a good pace, there are exciting, life-threatening scenes and even a dramatic helicopter chase. A good read.