Book Review: Sugar Cookie Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke
Title: Sugar Cookie Murder
Publisher: Kensington
Publish Date: Oct 1, 2005
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb:The holidays are the icing on the cake for bakery owner Hannah Swensen. Surrounded by her loved ones, she has all the ingredients for a perfect Christmas until murder is added to the mix...

When it comes to holidays, Minnesotans rise to the occasion and the little town of Lake Eden is baking up a storm with Hannah leading the way. The annual Christmas Buffet is the final test of the recipes Hannah has collected for the Lake Eden Holiday Buffet Cookbook.

While Hannah is baking the day s goodies at The Cookie Jar, the evening s plans begin to jell. Start with the best Lake Eden culinary creations, add two of Hannah s sometime boyfriends, a pinch of her ready-to-pop pregnant sister, and a dash of her mother and new significant other, an actual British lord, and what do you get? A recipe for disaster, but the juiciest ingredient is yet to come..

The recently divorced Martin Dubinski arrives at the buffet with his new Vegas showgirl wife all wrapped up in glitter and fur. His ex-wife, however, seems as cool as chilled eggnog. And when Hannah s mother s antique Christmas cake knife disappears, its discovery in the decolletage of the new and now late Mrs. Dubinski puts the festivities on ice.

With everyone stranded at the community center by a blizzard, Hannah puts her investigative skills to the test, using the ingredients at hand: half the town of Lake Eden and a killer. Now, as the snowdrifts get higher, it s up to Hannah to dig out all the clues and make sure that this white Christmas doesn't bring any more deadly tidings.

Review: This is a cute holiday mystery for fans of the Hannah Swensen series. It is also a two-fer if you ask me. It is half book and half cookbook. Not bad really, unless you are looking for a meaty mystery to carry you through a few hours.

If that's the case, you probably wouldn't want to be reading a Hannah Swensen anyway. These are cheesy fun cozies. If Harlequin had a cozy mystery line, Hannah would be part of it. Hmmm. Why doesn't Harlequin have a cozy line!

But back to the story at hand.

This story involves a recent divorced man and his showgirl bride. It is easy to tell that the bride is going to be our victim early on, because she's just so unappealing and unlikeable that she has to be the one that dies!  All this happens during a potluck supper for the holiday. (That's why there are so many recipes in the end. They are compiling a cookbook from everyone's potluck taste test recipes).

The characters of Lake Eden are so colorful and quirky. That's why I keep coming back. It has nothing to do with great mysteries, because like I said, these aren't really what these books are about. I mean come on! How many people get killed in the same small town? I would think the FBI would be starting to wonder!

I will give Joanne credit for making sure you won't guess her killer in most books, and this one was no exception. Just when you think you do know, you find out that you were wrong!

My only gripe with Hannah is her crazy love triangle. I love the average Joe, Norman. He's nice, he loves Hannah, he has cats.  Good guy! Mike, however is a ....hmmm. I think buttwad is an appropriate term. I cannot figure out why Hannah would stick with him this long.

It isn't as if he's someone like Ranger and Morelli. Nope.

Still, I enjoyed this one. A cute, festive read with lots of glorious things to cook.

Rating: 4 flowers