However, she is not immune to the lure of looking great in a fab frock. Hannah is generally quite happy in her skin these days, content with the company of her canny cat Moishe. The murder and mayhem side of the story is nicely balanced with the personal – including the relationship Hannah has with her sister and her brother-in-law, and her mother’s constant attempts to marry her off. Untangling the politics and secrets of her small town and its social echelons leads Hannah into danger, along red-herringed paths and occasionally across the personal sensitivities of family, friends and fellow citizens. In good murder mystery style, a body turns up very quickly into the story – Hannah discovers the body of popular delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, Ron LaSalle – he’s been shot in his van in the alley behind Hannah’s store.
The first of the series, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder has the feel of this so well, it is clearly born of experience, affectionate observation, though not without keen-eyed irony. Like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke was born in a small town in rural Minnesota. The channel was spun off from sister network Hallmark Channel, and airs family-oriented feature and made-for-TV movies along with a limited number of murder- and mystery-themed television series. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Crown Media Holdings. For anyone like me not in the know about this:
Her work has also been produced on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel.
She ably churns out hundreds of cookies a day from her bakery-café for the populace of Lake Eden, whilst moonlighting as investigative assistant to her brother-in-law, the town cop.Īs you can see by the publication date of this book, I am a late comer to the delights of Joanne Fluke’s vast series of Hannah Swensen mysteries – all of them named for cakes, cookies and desserts. 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.Having just knocked out a couple of batches of lunchbox baked goods for grandkids as they return to school post-Covid 19 schooling from home, I can but admire the baking sleuth from small town America who is the heroine of the Hannah Swensen mystery series. His ex-wife, however, seems as cool as chilled eggnog.Īnd when Hannah’s mother’s antique Christmas cake knife disappears, its discovery in the décolletage of the new – and now late – Mrs. The recently divorced Martin Dubinski arrives at the buffet with his new Vegas showgirl wife – all wrapped up in glitter and fur. The annual Christmas Buffet is the final test of the recipes Hannah has collected for the Lake Eden Holiday Buffet Cookbook. 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.
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