Mystery Monday: Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Today’s Mystery Monday feature is part of the Hannah Swensen mysteries by Joanne Fluke.  In keeping with the season, Sugar Cookie Murder is a holiday mystery, #6 in the series, complete, as usual with recipes, some of which I can’t wait to try.  All of her ‘foodie’ mysteries take place in Hannah’s home town of Lake Eden, Minnesota where Hannah runs her own café and bakery serving from early morning to mid afternoon in the small town where she lives with her mother and two sisters.  Before going into baking full time with her own shop, Hannah had been an English major at university and one of her quirks is that she compulsively corrects the inaccurate grammar of others.  Along with her sisters, one of her beaux, Deputy Sheriff Mike, and occasionally her mother, Hannah solves murders.

Christmas is almost here and it’s the night of the Lake Eden Pot Luck tasting dinner at the community centre and all of the recipes entered for Hannah’s new cookbook have been made by a few trusted bakers not to be revealed and the whole town gets to try them out.  Hannah’s mother, Delores, has loaned an exquisite, antique silver cake knife encrusted with precious gems for cutting the cake, her sister Andrea has had the OK from her doctor to resume activities in the hopes her baby (already late) will be delivered, Hannah’s other beau, dentist Norman, has been roped into shooting photos of the food for the new book, the main threat to her relationship with Mike has left town to return home to Georgia, and Martin Dubinski has shown up with his new bride — a Vegas stripper — while his ex and his mother sit across the room from them fuming.  The stripper thinks she may have seen the mayor somewhere before, and when she turns up in the parking lot in her expensive fur and the silver cake knife embedded in her chest, there’s a plethora of suspects.

This is not only a fun mystery but all of the recipes for the pot luck are in the last half of the book.  There are several that appeal to me and I’m sure you’ll find some you like as well.  This is a great series that combines mystery with food and this particular episode is no exception.  You’ll want to read further episodes to find out which of her two beaux Hannah will choose and what will happen between Delores and the dashing English lord chasing after her of whom all three sisters have their serious suspicions.  Lots of fun.  * * * *

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If you, too, are a fan of mysteries, I hope you’ll not only enjoy my Monday posts but will contribute by publishing your own Monday Mystery, mentioning my meme, then come to my blog, comment on your mystery (or mine) briefly, and include the link directly to your mystery review.  You can also copy my MMM badge to your post.