A Taste for Honey was the first of three novels Heard wrote about a Mr. Mycroft, strongly implied to be an elderly Sherlock Holmes in retirement on the Sussex Downs.

[1] Heard also wrote two short stories featuring the detective for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: "Mr. Montalba, Obsequist"[2] (September 1945)[3] and "The Enchanted Garden" (March 1949).

[3] Christopher Morley called A Taste for Honey the only worthwhile Sherlock Holmes sequel, adding that it was "engaging and terrifying".

[5] Vladimir Nabokov expressed enthusiasm for the novel, stating in a letter to his friend, the critic Edmund Wilson: "I was lying on my bed groaning … yearning for a good detective story—and at that very moment the Taste for Honey sailed in.

[6] On 22 February 1955, the American Broadcasting Company presented "Sting of Death", an adaptation of the novel starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Mycroft, as an episode of The Elgin TV Hour.