mazarin221b:

This scene is straight out of ” The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” by Laurie R. King, almost word for word perfect. To wit:

“He…had even written a book on the apiary arts entitled A Practical Handbook of Bee Culture. It had been well received, he said with pride….”

“We took up our cups, but as I followed him across the room towards the French doors my attention was drawn by an odd oject fixed to the room’s south wall: a tall box, only a few inches wide but nearly three feet tall and protruding a good eighteen inches into the room. It appeared to be a solid block of wood but, pausing to examine it, I could see that both sides were sliding panels.

“My observation hive,” Mr. Holmes said.

“Bees? I exclaimed. “Inside the house?”

Instead of answering he reached past me and slid back one of the side panels, and revealed there a perfect, thin, glass-fronted beehive.”

Someone’s been doing their homework on other pastiche, obviously.