# Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan - Blinkist

What’s in it for me? A dramatic story about the secrets we keep for love, and the true costs of survival.

On December 7, 2018, in the small town of Adams, New Hampshire, two women find their lives forever changed.

One, a newcomer and high school senior named Lily, is found dead that afternoon.

The other, Olivia, sees her son arrested and tried for Lily’s murder.

Olivia’s own flight from an abusive past catches up to her during the trial and its aftermath.

For this small town and beyond, the trial becomes headline news – with a potential hate crime driving the narrative.

Olivia goes to extraordinary lengths to protect her son, uncovering some startling truths along the way.

A short note before we begin: This Blink references some difficult topics, including abuse and violence – so please proceed with caution.

The morning of December 7 dawns like most others for single mom and rural beekeeper Olivia McKafee on her small family farm in New Hampshire.

Her son, Asher, is making coffee in the kitchen, and Christmas decorating has begun.

Asher soon rushes off to high school.

The day of

He's been fighting with his girlfriend, Lily, and is withdrawn.

Later that morning, Olivia checks her hives and discovers a predator raided one in the night.

Desperate to save the bees, she begins repairs that take up most of the day.

Getting stung in the process, she is reminded of past violent abuse by her ex-husband – Asher’s father – Brandon.

That evening, Olivia realizes she hasn’t heard from Asher and gets concerned.

Soon, she receives a frantic phone call from Asher at the police station, with the troubling news that Asher’s girlfriend of several months, Lily, might be dead.

Lily’s day starts a bit differently on December 7.

Feeling sick and nervous, she’s home from school.

A week ago, she fought with Asher when he tried to orchestrate a reunion between her and her estranged father – a reunion Lily saw less as an early Christmas gift and more as a betrayal of trust.

Asher passionately argued that he felt deprived of a relationship with his father, and wanted her to have one.

But Lily had fled her abusive father – just as Olivia had fled Asher’s abusive father – and she wasn’t moved by Asher’s pleas.

She wore friendship bracelets to cover scars from a recent suicide attempt stemming from her father’s abuse.

Feeling betrayed, Lily walked miles home in the snow and didn’t speak with Asher for a week after this debacle.

She blames the cold walk for her current illness.

Her mother, Ava, blames Asher for the bruises she saw on Lily’s arms after their fight.

Lily recounts, with some dread, that this is the day early application decisions are announced for Oberlin, her first-choice college.

By that afternoon, she’s gotten the bad news – she wasn’t admitted – and is receiving increasingly desperate texts from Asher.

Then there’s a knock at the door.

The story continues from Olivia’s point of view as she rushes to meet Asher at the local police station.

The small-town detective who’s questioning her son about Lily’s death was Olivia’s senior prom date, Mike.

Because of their long history, the detective allows Olivia to stay.

She learns that Asher found Lily in her home, unconscious at the bottom of the stairs.

Her head was bleeding profusely.

Asher had moved Lily to the couch and was cradling her when Lily’s mom, Ava, returned and called 911.

Shortly after the interrogation begins, the detective receives a call that Lily has died.

ANALYSIS The story opens with an epigraph from philosopher Søren Kierkegaard about life being understood backward, yet lived forward.

Olivia’s story unfolds forward in time from the day Asher is first questioned for Lily’s murder.

The story weaves together her past with abusive ex Brandon, her life as a small-town beekeeper, and reflections as a single mom to Asher.

Most importantly, we learn that she's kept much about the abuse she endured while married to Brandon from his son.

She hoped to protect Asher from the horrific truth of what she suffered before fleeing in the middle of the night.

We encounter Lily’s story backward, beginning with the dramatic day of her death.

It flashes back to her earlier life on the West Coast, and references a difficult childhood.

We hear about her mother Ava’s dramatic efforts to keep Lily safe after hints of a recent suicide attempt and abuse from her father.

Sprinkled throughout Olivia’s story are facts and lore about bees.

We learn of their matriarchal colonies, their strange biology, and their complex behavior.

They serve as metaphors for important themes.

Old customs around telling the bees about a recent death in the home give resonance to Olivia’s grief.

The bees also echo the sweet and the sting of Olivia’s relationship with Asher.

Her protective instincts are demonstrated both when her hive, and her son, are attacked.

Finally, Olivia slowly reveals the repressed history about her picture-perfect relationship with Asher’s father, and details the sadistic abuse she endured behind closed doors.

References to Lily’s recent bruises, and Asher trying to reunite Lily with her father, sow doubts about whether Asher has escaped his father’s abusive tendencies.

The weeks before, the weeks after

With the cause of Lily’s death not yet determined, Asher is sent home after questioning and becomes a grief-stricken shadow.

Olivia remembers her own encounters with the beautiful Lily, and is grieving as well.

At the memorial service a few days later, Maya, one of Asher and Lily’s closest friends, is similarly distraught and traumatized.

But their collective trauma pales in comparison to Lily’s mother, Ava, who angrily blames Asher for her daughter’s death.

Just as Ava makes this accusation, detective Mike requests Asher to come back to the station for more questioning.

Pressed on the timeline of events, Asher gets flustered when asked if he was in Lily’s bedroom that day.

He denies going upstairs, and denies knowing about Lily’s room showing signs of a struggle.

The detective delivers a startling bit of news: Asher's fingerprints have been found in Lily’s room.

Faced with this evidence, Olivia tells Asher to stop talking, and rushes him out of the interrogation room.

Once home, she calls her brother Jordan, an internationally renowned defense attorney, and asks for his help.

Meanwhile, Lily’s story flashes back to a week before her death.

Asher revealed to her that he was still in touch with his abusive father, and knew about his father’s new family.

Frustrated that his dad always met him alone and out of town, like a secret, Asher decided to drive to his father’s place, uninvited, for Thanksgiving.

Lily went along for moral support.

When the surprise was met with outrage, the couple fled to Asher’s childhood treehouse for comfort, and made passionate love.

In the present, Olivia is awakened from a nightmare about her abusive ex – and finds the police at the door to arrest Asher.

Lily’s death has been ruled a homicide, and Asher’s fingerprints in her room constitute powerful evidence.

Asher is taken away and jailed.

When Olivia’s brother Jordan arrives, he pulls no punches – if murder is the charge, he says, the case against Asher is strong.

The day of the arraignment, the press is already mobbing the court.

Shortly after Asher is charged and held on a million-dollar bond, he’s attacked in his jail cell.

Desperate, Olivia tries to raise funds for bail, and Jordan urges her to contact Asher’s father for the money.

Afraid of the fallout, she tries to get a loan.

Preparing for the trial, Jordan must act as Asher’s attorney, not Olivia’s – because the stakes are life in prison if Asher is found guilty.

When Jordan visits Asher to prepare the case, Olivia hears that Asher is desperate to tell his side of the story.

But Jordan doesn’t want to hear anything about it; he says it could threaten the defense.

We return to Lily’s story, three weeks before her death.

She has confessed something to Asher that has shaken their relationship.

Relating the conversation in flashback, she regrets telling him, as he’s ignored her ever since.

In despair, Lily visits Asher’s home one afternoon and finds Olivia alone in the cellar, repairing hives.

Though Olivia is oblivious to Lily and Asher’s relationship troubles, Lily finds comfort in the conversation.

ANALYSIS As Olivia spends her time preparing for Asher’s trial, she’s reminded again and again of abusive moments with her ex-husband, Brandon.

When Asher is arraigned on a murder charge, the prosecutor describes his relationship with Lily as volatile and resulting in murder.

Hearing these charges against her son is heartbreaking.

Uncle Jordan, as defense attorney, reveals some troubling facts about the legal system.

As a lawyer, he has to decide how to successfully defend his client – and that means keeping himself, and Olivia by extension, in the dark about the details of Asher and Lily’s relationship.

The truth isn’t at stake in the trial; arguing for reasonable doubt is all that matters.

Lily’s story playing out in reverse is bittersweet.

Her joy from being intimate with Asher follows the revelation of her death, and the failed reconciliation with her father.

Her tale draws many possible parallels between Brandon and Asher, Olivia and Lily.

While Olivia’s story is interspersed with bee lore, Lily’s is likewise peppered with random facts about a multitude of topics.

Through her flashbacks, Lily is revealed as an accomplished musician, a competitive athlete, and a voraciously curious student with a bright future.

But as the mystery of Lily’s fate, and her past, become central in the trial, both take a darker turn.

Months before, and months after

The pace quickens as Asher’s trial begins and more of Lily’s history is uncovered.

Olivia has been spending all her time visiting Asher in jail, and being shunned by the small town that has already judged her son guilty.

The family barn is vandalized, and revelations emerge that Asher was caught up in a student cheating scandal at school.

Meanwhile Maya, Asher’s childhood best friend, won’t testify for Asher.

The prosecution has new forensic evidence of Asher being in Lily’s room, too, and Asher’s initial assertion that he wasn’t there before her murder appears problematic.

When Asher tries to commit suicide in jail just before the trial, Olivia does the unthinkable and approaches her ex-husband Brandon for the money to bail Asher out of jail.

She informs Brandon about the trial and the charges, and her ex is surprisingly supportive.

Asher gets to return home just in time for the trial to begin.

Lily’s story picks up a few days after the big fight she had with Asher before her death – the one that caused him to ignore her for almost two weeks.

She broke down with her friend Maya, confessing she was afraid her relationship with Asher was over now that they’d had sex.

Maya comforted her and assured her that life would go on, with or without Asher.

A few days after their conversation, Maya tried to force a surprise encounter between Asher and Lily at a house party.

It went poorly, but later that night, Asher showed up outside Lily’s bedroom window.

He came to make up and insisted he’d just needed time to process their previous conversation.

He promised to keep Lily’s secret – possibly referring to her suicide attempt.

When they had sex again in Lily’s room, she felt seen, understood, and happy.

As the trial begins, the prosecution is brutal.

They say they’ll prove Asher was an unstable boyfriend who murdered his partner after escalating violent behavior, and that Lily died from blunt force trauma in an attack.

Detective Mike testifies about Asher's statement that he was not in Lily’s room – now clearly false, given they’d had sex there.

Asher’s texts to Lily the day of her murder about needing to see her, and his final text in capital letters that he wanted all of this to end and was coming over right now, seem damning.

When Jordan gets his opportunity to cross-examine the pathologist who ruled Lily’s death a homicide, he questions whether or not the doctor introduced errors in the report.

There were no female sexual organs listed in Lily’s autopsy, for instance – so the defense believes the doctor’s murder ruling is unreliable.

Instead, the medical examiner reveals what he assumed everyone already knew: Lily had no uterus or ovaries because she was transgender.

ANALYSIS The reveal that Lily is transgender is placed strategically late in the narrative.

At once, it immediately casts doubts about the nature of Lily and Asher’s secret.

Given the sensational nature of the trial, this discovery sends the prosecution in a new direction – they label the murder as anti-trans violence.

It also explains Lily’s statements about not being the boy her father wanted, and why Lily felt so deeply guilty keeping something secret.

It might also explain her panic at Asher’s attempted reconciliation with her estranged father.

If Asher didn’t know Lily was transgender, fear of exposure could be driving her reaction.

This revelation comes after the details about Lily and Asher having sex, which begins to suggest a “trans panic” explanation for the murder.

It makes Lily’s passionate description of her happiness in their union tragic; this intimacy might have cost Lily her life.

With the stakes now raised even higher, and Asher’s defense attorney reeling, we are poised to dive deeper into Lily’s history – and Olivia’s devastation at the news that her son might have committed a hate crime.

The aftermath, the prologue

With both the defense and prosecution in Lily’s murder trial left dazed by the revelation of her transgender status, the media circus heats up.

The possible anti-trans violence behind Lily’s death horrifies Olivia, and she’s anxious to know if Asher was aware.

As defense attorney, Jordan is desperate not to know – if Asher knew about Lily’s status, it might be impossible to argue the case.

Lily’s story returns to the day she met Asher’s father over lunch a few weeks before their failed surprise visit.

She knew that Asher’s mother had left because of abuse, and saw many signs in that short meeting that Asher’s father wasn’t a good guy.

When she confronted Asher about this impression, he drove erratically and frightened her.

Angry at her judgment of his father, Asher shoved Lily, causing bruises.

We also learn the horrifying details about what drove her suicide attempt.

When students at her previous school discovered she was trans, they declared her king and queen at a school dance before assaulting her, stripping her naked, and leaving her in the school parking lot.

Her boyfriend led the assault.

Lily’s mother, though, stepped up her protective efforts.

She took Lily out of school, scheduled the surgical transition with a caring medical team, and moved across the country so Lily could start life over.

At the trial, the surgeon who oversaw the transition is called to testify.

He says Lily’s identity as a transwoman would not have been obvious, even during sex.

Lily’s mother testifies about her fears that Asher was abusive, judging from Lily’s emotional state and constant bruises.

Maya, their friend, testifies for the prosecution that she saw Asher grab Lily once.

Outraged, Asher explodes, accusing Maya of lying.

His courtroom outburst plays right into the prosecution’s case.

In desperation, Olivia testifies on Asher’s behalf.

Brandon, surprisingly, attends court that day.

Attempting to explain Asher’s background, Olivia lays out the abuse they suffered in graphic detail – with Brandon present.

For the first time, she reveals that she left her husband when he attacked Asher.

But the testimony backfires when Olivia confesses their relationship was quite loving early on.

Before the closing arguments, a sudden brainstorm changes everything.

Jordan’s wife and research partner in the case thinks to call in another medical examiner to go over Lily’s autopsy.

An expert on brain pathology, he testifies about details the previous examiner missed.

Lily was suffering from an underlying blood disorder that caused her sickness, bruising, possible fainting, and excessive bleeding.

This diagnosis casts doubt on the death being murder at all.

With this reasonable doubt, Asher is acquitted.

In the aftermath, Asher and Olivia adjust to the new normal.

Detective Mike, who supported Olivia through the trial, is now her romantic partner.

Asher has gone off to a local college, delayed for a year by his arrest and trial.

Lily’s mom, Ava, seeks out Olivia before she moves away – and Olivia gives her a jar of honey to take with her.

ANALYSIS The closing of the story is bittersweet.

Olivia’s doubts about Asher abusing Lily haunt her.

It’s ultimately revealed that Asher knew Lily was transgender – and didn’t care.

But the trial playing out in a small town means that regardless of the outcome, life will never be normal.

Maya’s testimony against Asher also has a bitter twist when it becomes clear that Maya’s crush on Asher caused a fight between the girls the day of Lily’s death – the signs of struggle in Lily’s bedroom were a result of Lily and Maya fighting over Asher.

Asher, too, is forever changed.

The stark testimony about his father’s abuse was painful.

His choice to keep Lily’s secret, even when it could have benefited him to reveal it, casts a new light on his character.

That Lily found someone who loved her for exactly who she was makes her death, in retrospect, even more tragic.

Single mom and domestic abuse survivor Olivia has escaped her past and built a new life for herself and her son, Asher, in a small town.

Final Summary

When Asher is arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Lily, she risks everything to defend him – even as it turns her life upside down.

Then it’s discovered that Lily was trans, and the world assumes the death was a hate crime.

But when new evidence emerges, Asher is found innocent, and Olivia learns that he isn’t like his father at all.