Series: Hannah Swensen #26
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 368
No. of Pages: 368
Date of Publication: September 29, 2020
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Featuring over a dozen cookie and dessert recipes from The Cookie Jar—Hannah Swensen’s famous bakery, this festive new Christmas mystery from the Queen of Culinary Cozies is just the holiday treat you need this season!
As December turns Lake Eden into the North Pole, the heat is on in Hannah Swensen’s kitchen to honor two Christmas promises: baking irresistible holiday cupcakes and preventing murder!
While Hannah speeds through a lengthy holiday checklist, drama in town grows like Santa’s waistline on Christmas Eve. Her sister Andrea wants to stave off the blues by helping out at The Cookie Jar, Michele’s love life is becoming complicated, Lisa needs Hannah’s advice, and Delores has a Christmas secret she’s not willing to share. But nothing dampens the holiday mood more than the chilling mystery surrounding the man found near death in an abandoned storefront two doors down from Hannah’s bakery . . .
The befuddled John Doe can’t recall a thing about himself—except for his unusual knowledge of restoring antique furniture. With a smattering of clues and barely enough time to frost Christmas cookies, Hannah must solve a deadly puzzle that could leave her dashing through the snow for her life!
MY THOUGHTS:
Nothing is going quite white for the Swensen family. Hannah is busy selecting Christmas recipes, Andrea is experiencing the holiday blues, Michelle is unhappy of late. Then, Hannah’s best friend and business partner at the Cookie Jar, desperately seeks Hannah’s advice. Even Hannah’s mother Delores is experiencing her own woes.
So, family troubles aside, what is this 26th book in the Hannah Swensen series bringing? Another mystery of course, so Hannah hopes to explore whatever clues she can to find out the who, what and why in a case she takes on. The where was just two doors from her cookie shop, and she ant let things go.
The title might throw you off. It certainly did for me. I wondered why it wasn’t called Christmas Cupcake “Mystery”, instead of “Murder”. There is definitely a mystery in this book, and it was intriguing.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
While pursuing her writing career, Joanne has worked as: a public school teacher, a psychologist, a musician, a private detective's assistant, a corporate, legal, and pharmaceutical secretary, a short order cook, a florist's assistant, a caterer and party planner, a computer consultant on a now-defunct operating system, a production assistant on a TV quiz show, half of a screenwriting team with her husband, and a mother, wife, and homemaker.
She now lives in Southern California with her husband, her kids, his kids, their three dogs, one elderly tabby, and several noisy rats in the attic.
Joanne Fluke has baked over 500,000 chocolate chip cookies for fans of her Hannah Swensen mysteries since the series debuted in 2000, not to mention countless pies, cakes, muffins and other sweets. However, it’s not just the desserts that keep readers clamoring for her next novel. Reviewers have long praised Fluke’s work, with Kirkus Reviews calling her novel PEACH COBBLER MURDER, “her tastiest yet.” Publishers Weekly said her holiday Hannah Swensen Mystery, SUGAR COOKIE MURDER, is “a delectable culinary romp…[with] wacky and delightful characters.”
Fluke’s CHERRY CHEESECAKE MURDER marked her debut onto The New York Times bestseller list in March 2006, and she followed up that success again a year later in March 2007 with her second New York Timesbestseller, KEY LIME PIE MURDER, praised by Publishers Weekly as “Yummy…Fluke has developed a charming supporting cast—all feel like friends by the time the murder is solved.”
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