The Bees

JACK LAFLIN
The Bees

Tempo, New York, 1976
(price: $1.25, 154 pages)

The blurb on the back:

Ferocious killer bees are threatening to annihilate the populations of both American populations and ultimately the world!
Together Roy Ramsdell, a scientist, and Dr Laura Messick, a member of the Public Health Services, combat a menacing swarm of killer bees that science created but couldn't destroy.
Unimpeded, the bees are advancing northward from South America - devastating villages, mutilating millions and leaving in their bloody wake an irreversible outbreak of looting, violence and death.

opening lines:
The book you are about to read is fiction. Its characters and situations are figments of the author's imagination.
However, the killer bees, around which the plot revolves are very much fact.

There was something in the air in 1970s America, and that thing was a swarm of African killer bees making their way up from South America to the US. We had The Swarm, we had the TV movie of The Killer Bees, we had a Mexican movie The Bees and we had this, which is possibly the first of the breed. And it's not bad, but not really what you'd call a classic. In fact, it's exactly what you'd expect it to be, if you've read the sleeve notes.

The problem, of course, is that ever since Michael Moore's film Bowling For Columbine it's hard to see these scare stories of African killer bees as being anything other than racism. Which gives the whole thing a curious historical perspective, and possibly enhances your reading pleasure. But don't worry if you miss the book: your life won't be significantly poorer. Enjoy the Rocky Horror-esque couple on the cover, while you're here, and that'll probably be enough.

ARTISTIC MERIT: 2/5
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 2/5
HIPNESS QUOTIENT: 3/5

More bees? Yes, please:

The Swarm

horror

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