Skip to main content

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen #1)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
(Hannah Swensen #1)
By: Joanne Fluke
Release Date: April 11th 2013 (first published April 1st 2000)
Publisher: Kensington Books
Rating: 3 out 5
Series:Hannah Swensen
Summary: Discover the delicious mystery that started it all!

No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke s dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes one delicious clue at a time has made her a bestselling favorite. And it all began on these pages, with a bakery, a murder, and some suddenly scandalous chocolate-chip crunchies. Featuring a bonus short story and brand new, mouthwatering recipes, this limited edition of the very first Hannah Swensen mystery is sure to have readers coming back for seconds.

Hannah Swenson already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother s attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden, Minnesota s most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah s famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can t get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer.

Who would have the sheer audacity and the motive to kill the most punctual delivery man Hannah ever had? Topping the list is the high school football coach. What exactly was his wife doing, making the rounds with the milkman? Could Max Turner, owner of Cozy Cow Dairy, have had a secret he didn t want to share with his top employee? The more Hannah snoops, the more suspects turn up. Why has Lake Eden s most prominent prodigal son, Benton Woodley, just resurfaced? And what about the mysterious Mr. Harris who seemed interested in buying the property next to the dairy, but then disappeared? This is one murder that s starting to leave a very bad taste in Hannah s mouth. And if she doesn t watch her back, Hannah s sweet life may get burned to a crisp.


Filled with a healthy sprinkling of humor and a delightful assortment of nuts, CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MURDER serves up a great new mystery series and introduces a delicious, down-home sleuth that mystery readers will surely savor for years to come.


Review:Is it difficult reading? No. Are the characters the best characters I’ve ever read? No. But what Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder it is that the book is a fun, light read. You could probably start reading any of these books as your first, and you would have no trouble understanding the characters or the plots (some would find this a plus, while others would see it as a drawback, I’m sure).

This is the first of Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen books. Hannah is the owner of the Cookie Jar, and she develops a propensity for finding dead bodies and investigating their murders. It’s actually a really fun series, and good for those times when you just want a light-hearted and relaxing read. Adding to the fun of the series is the fact that Hannah has two men vying for her attention — one a handsome police officer who never cannot make her heart beat faster, the other a sweet, reliable, though balding dentist. Hannah torn between the two, and it’s fun trying to figure out which one she might choose in the end.

The recipe tidbits were fun, but I would rather have them all collected at the end of the book instead of breaking up the story so many times.

Overall, the mystery was fun. The book was light and a quick read. I will continue with this one even if the ending love triangle creation was a bit of a stretch.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Face of a Stranger (William Monk #1)

  By:  Anne Perry Release Date:   November 1st 2011 (first published 1990) Publisher:  Thorndike Press Series:  William Monk #1 Rating:  1 out 5 They said his name is William Monk, and he is a London police detective. But an accident that happened upon him left him with no memories. As he tries to hide the truth, Monk returns to work and is assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a Crimean War hero. Can he solve this mystery when he forgot his professional skills along with everything else? The Face of a Stranger is a boring book. I struggled to finish the book, and  I was close to being defeated. The main character, Monk, has amnesia. I get it. But he sits around with all this introspection, wondering what kind of person he is, who he is, why he doesn’t seem to have any friends, etc. Why doesn’t he just ask someone? His sister, or maybe his boss. I get the impression that he’s going to sit around doing this through the entire book, and I don’t ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Return

By: Joseph Helmreich Release Date: March 14th 2017 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Rating: 3 out 5 Summary: Years after a scientist is abducted on live TV, a graduate student tracks down the mysteriously returned, yet reclusive man, ultimately uncovering a global conspiracy. During a live television broadcast on the night of a lunar eclipse, renowned astrophysicist Andrew Leland is suddenly lifted into the sky by a giant spacecraft and taken away for all to see. Six years later, he turns up, wandering in a South American desert, denying ever having been abducted and disappears from the public eye. Meanwhile, he inspires legions of cultish devotees, including a young physics graduate student named Shawn Ferris who is obsessed with finding out what really happened to him. When Shawn finally tracks Leland down, he discovers that he's been on the run for years, continuously hunted by a secret organization that has pursued him across multiple continents, determined to fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Alice Network

  By:   Kate Quinn Release Date:   June 6th 2017 Publisher:   William Morrow Paperbacks Rating:   3 out 5 In 1947, Charlie St. Clair, an unmarried and pregnant American socialite, is on a search to find her missing cousin. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister. There she is introduction to Eve Gardiner, a retirement spy who is train mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the “queen of spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose. Haunted by the betrayal that destroys Alice network. Eva spends her days drunk until Charlie barges in, uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads. I’m disappointed in myself for not enjoying this more than I did. I did like roughly half of the book and had ...
Post a Comment
Read more