I’ve heard lots of praise for Joanne Fluke and her Hannah Swenson culinary mysteries. I received an Advanced Reader Copy from Kensington Books for review purposes and I dove in with great anticipation.
Hannah Swenson and her sister help an injured jazz band when their tour bus is in an accident. Hannah feels responsible to investigate when one of the musicians is later murdered at the hospital. She’s also being prodded by her family and friends to break up her former boyfriend’s upcoming wedding to a scheming and evil usurper of his affections.
Both plots overlap in a convincing way. The mystery isn’t all that complex but the red herrings are laid out fairly and nicely interspersed with the real clues. One of the deaths is pretty much ignored after it’s determined that it could have been an accident. I would have liked a bit more resolution there. Was he murdered or not?
The book is as much cookbook/recipe book as it is mystery.
The recipes look delicious and they are written so that even the most novice of cooks can follow the directions easily.
Since this is a series and I hadn’t read any of the previous books, I did have a bit of problem sorting out all the characters. I also found some of the characters to be behaving a bit illogically, but I’m willing to say that if I knew them better, it might make more sense.
I understand that in the cozy genre, more latitude is given to activities such as cooking, knitting, or gardening, but I often found myself wanting to skim the parts where Hannah and her partner or her sister would discuss what they were going to bake next and whether they had enough flour on hand for a full batch or something and then listing the utensils they would need. That got a bit tedious and could have tightened up the scene if it had been streamlined.
Overall, I recommend Cinnamon Roll Murder and I look forward to reading another.
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I received a free copy of Cinnamon Roll Murder for review purposes but it did not influence my review.
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