“A wild ride that includes a bounty of secrets, a doomsday cult, and enough twists to satisfy even the most seasoned mystery reader.”

– PopSugar ("Best New Thriller and Mystery Books in September")

"Lampman’s prose has a haunting, poetic quality and a deep engagement with the natural world."

– CrimeReads ("5 Debut Novels You Should Read in September")

"An affecting, lyrical debut. The novel blossoms when it explores how the rhythms of nature add grace to human solitude. A profound, stark tale of loss and longing across generations. Lampman is a writer to watch."

– Publishers Weekly

“Gorgeous and thought-provoking descriptions of bee and tree life, as well as the Pacific Northwest generally. Suggest some nature-focused nonfiction, such as Peter Wohlleben’s Can You Hear the Trees Talking, to go with Lampman’s debut novel.”

– Booklist

“Sins of the Bees is a fascinating glimpse into the world of a paranoid doomsday cult, with echoes of The Handmaid's Tale—though this isn't science fiction. This heartfelt contemporary literary thriller brings together multiple timelines into a compelling whole, with elements of romance, suspense, and mystery intertwining. Annie Lampman is clearly a writer to watch.”

– Dan Chaon, National Book Award finalist

“Lush and sweeping in its language and its landscape, Sins of the Bees takes us to the heart of human need—for love, for family, for a reason to stay alive. Moving between the verdant Pacific Coast and the arid breaks of Hells Canyon, from the artist's reflective sensibility to the survivalist's absolute desire to own and control the people around him, Lampman weaves a story of destiny and desperation that pitches one woman's quest for paradise against the violent will of a man bent on domination and destruction.”

– Kim Barnes, Pulitzer Prize Finalist

“With stunning, poetic language, Lampman weaves a remarkable novel full of wisdom and hope. It’s a contemporary cautionary tale that speaks to the dangers and devastation wrought by powerful, charismatic men—and to the women who resurrect themselves by rejecting and repudiating them. And at the story’s core is a deep search for family connection. A marvelous, metaphorical and profound debut.”

– Buddy Levy, bestselling author of 'Labyrinth of Ice'

“Sins of the Bees echoes the work of writers like Annie Proulx and Rick Bass in its portrayal of memory-haunted folks inextricably bound to the harsh and beautiful land.”

– Daniel Orozco, Whiting Award recipient, former Stegner Fellow, and author of Orientation and Other Stories

“More than a human melodrama, Lampman uses everything she knows from backpacking into the land around Idaho’s Snake River and Hell’s Canyon to add realism to her tale of love and loss. In fact, this is both a naturalist’s guide to the sunbaked sections of the Pacific northwest—the plants and animals that live there (including bees and bonsai trees)—and a literary thriller of a romance that keeps the reader hanging on to the epilogue. Brava, Ms. Lampman!”

– Mitch Silver, author of The Apollo Deception

“Compelling and deeply affecting, Sins of the Bees is a literary thriller about two women’s search for identity and their struggle to feel grounded and loved; to belong. I felt submerged in the lyrical writing, swept away by the undertows of desire, desperation, loss, and redemption. Annie Lampman’s debut is a stunner.”

– Lesley Kagen, New York Times bestselling author of Every Now and Then

“Sins of the Bees is a breathtaking, multi-layered meditation on love and loss, family and faith. With an urgency befitting our times, Lampman exposes the devastating price we pay when we empower cunning, amoral leaders. An ambitious debut that pits the family we're born into against the one we choose for ourselves.”

– Marco Rafalà, author of How Fires End

“With exquisite prose, Lampman’s Sins of the Bees weaves the brutality and beauty of nature, the depths of loss and the grief of love, and the twisted beliefs of a religious cult into an edge of your seat literary thriller.”

– Kim Taylor Blakemore, author of The Companion and After Alice Fell

“Grief in the green bounty, passion in the deep desert, the regrets of our ancestors coursing in our veins—Sins of the Bees is about the ways we in the American West try and fail, and yet might keep trying, to be in more sustaining relationship with ourselves, one another, and all the land that holds us. The writing here is breathtaking, as is the vision. This is a striking debut.”

– Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die and The Mountain and the Fathers

“Sins of the Bees is a complex and beautifully written family saga about loss, tragedy, and redemption set against the unsettling confines of a cult in rural Idaho. Silva and Isabelle are unforgettable protagonists questing for meaning, belonging, and family. Annie Lampman’s gorgeous, astonishing debut kept me up way too late at night!”

– Mary Pauline Lowry, author of The Roxy Letters