Last month, I joined my aunt, uncle and cousin on their trip to Orlando,
Florida. I came back to Erie to find snow on the ground. Yes, I had
definitely landed back in winter, so it seemed like the right time for
me to head off to Minnesota in my reading. Might as well pile on the
cold. I’ve been intrigued by Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen series since I
encountered it at the bookstore where I work. I’ve heard of “just
desserts,” but cookies and murder aren’t two things I tend to associate
with each other. If I did, visions of poison might prevent me from
partaking, and what fun would that be?
But poison isn’t the problem in Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder,
the first book in this series about a baker in the tiny town of Lake
Eden, Minnesota, who is an amateur sleuth on the side. The weapon of
choice is a gun, leaving poor Ron, a well-liked deliveryman, dead in his
truck, a batch of Hannah’s famous chocolate chip cookies scattered
about him. Because Hannah discovers the body, and so close to her own
shop, her brother-in-law Bill, a cop, asks her to give him an unofficial
hand with his investigation. If he can crack this case, he might just
have a shot at getting promoted to detective. Hannah is all too happy to
help, but is she biting off more than she can chew?
Hannah is a
30-year-old intellectually-minded woman who returned to her sleepy
hometown to help her mother and sisters deal with the aftermath of her
father’s death. Having decided to stick around, she now runs a cookie
shop and shares a condo with a clever cat named Moishe. While she is
content with her life, her meddling mother, Delores, probably the book’s
most amusing character, is always nagging her to find a nice man to
settle down with, just as her career-minded sister Andrea did.
Her
latest matchmaking efforts involve Norman Rhodes, a schlubby dentist
who has moved back to Lake Eden to take over his father’s practice. As
her investigation proceeds, Hannah has several opportunities to come
into contact with Norman and is surprised to find that she enjoys his
company. He’s easy-going, considerate and has a great sense of humor. At
the same time, she is intrigued by Mike, the new detective in town who,
much to her chagrin, makes her go all wobbly in the knees. He seems
nice enough too, though he’s very accomplished and doesn’t seem all that
impressed with the podonk place in which he’s landed. Hannah is used to
being happily independent, but it looks like these two men might begin
to complicate her world a bit.
And it’s already complicated
enough. Her head is swimming with details throughout the book as she
tries to zero in on clues and possible suspects in this appalling crime.
Her instincts are good; she picks up on tiny details that could prove
relevant and follows through on them, gathering one tiny bit of
information at a time. She’s completely new at this, so it’s nice to see
her bumbling down rabbit trails that ultimately lead her nowhere. She’s
no Columbo who hones in on her prime suspect from day one and hounds
him until he finally confesses. By the end of the book, it seems like
half the people in town have been under her suspicion at one point, but
her persistence in the face of disappointment is admirable. She merely
crosses another name off the list and presses on. She is one determined
gumshoe.
We’re looking over Hannah’s shoulder throughout the
book, so we get to know her very well, and we also see a lot of her
over-involved mother, her too-perfect sister Andrea, her helpful
assistant Lisa and her uncanny cat, with whom she is remarkably in sync.
And we also become well acquainted with her cookies, which make
multiple appearances. Happily, if they make your mouth water, Fluke
sprinkles recipes for them throughout the book. Thus far, the pecan
chews are the only ones I’ve baked, but they turned out very tasty, and
I’d like to try some of the others. Then again, I might just see what
goodies the second book has in store…
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