Joanne Fluke - Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder

This is the first book in the Hannah Swensen Mystery series. I am really into cozy mysteries at the moment. I bought this one over a year ago, with some other first books from different authors. With the thought that if I liked the first one, I would buy the rest. Now the problem is, I really did like this one. And that means, there are 13 more to find and buy!



No one cooks up a delectable, suspense filled mystery quite like Hannah Swenson, Joanne Fluk'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 best-selling favourite. 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 new edition of the very first Hannah Swensen mystery is sure to have readers coming back for seconds ...

Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother's attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden'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. But if she doesn't watch her back, Hannah's sweet life may get burned to a crisp.



I have the new version, so I also have the extra short story, and I am looking forward to reading that one as soon as I have finished this blog. I love cookies, but I am the buying sort, not the baking sort. So those recipes are skipped. Unless I can type them over for someone? They sure sound delicious!
I really liked Hannah, from the first page on, and her cat. Joanne Fluke has a writing style that is really my thing. Fluent and witty, and Hannah is no pushover, but also not too stubborn or anything. Her sister and mother, and her co-worker Lisa also have a big part in this book, and I liked them too.

Hannah lives in a little town in Minnesota, where the winters are brutal and last months. She had almost finished her studies for her doctorate in English and her teachers license, when her father died and her sister asked her to come back home to help with their mother and her finances. When that was on track, Hannah decided to stay in Lake Eden, and she started a coffee shop / bakery. Which comes very handy...

When her delivery man Ron gets shot right in the parking lot behind her shop, Hannah just has to help her brother-in-law Bill, a police officer who just finished his training for detective, to find out who killed him. She is the one finding all the clues, follows up on them, and when they fall through, goes searching for more clues. And when you bring a person a bag of cookies, you have the perfect way to start a conversation and ask impertinent questions.

Along the way she discovers the secrets from other people, but she keeps those for herself. And her mother keeps trying to fix her up with men, the latest one the new dentist in town, the son of her best friend. The two mothers see the both of them wed even before they have met! But to her own surprise, Hannah likes Norman Rhodes, and he seems to like her. But when Bill's new supervisor arrives, she is immediately attracted to that man too!

So, a great mystery is solved, and the seeds for romance are sowed for the next novels ... I can't wait!