Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A lemon meringue pie, two pieces cut and only one eaten (an important clue or an insult to her cooking?), an empty bottle of wine and only one of two take-out dinners consumed-these bits of evidence set Hannah Swenson, amateur sleuth and owner of the Cookie Jar Bakery in Lake Eden, Minn., on the trail of a murderer in Fluke's fourth fun, frothy cozy (after 2002's Blueberry Muffin Murder). Who could have killed voluptuous Rhonda Scharf, whose half-buried body Hannah's interfering mother discovers in the basement of an old house one of Hannah's swains has just purchased? The investigation proceeds unhurriedly, with plenty of time for cookies, coffee and small-town gossip. Enticing recipes for cookies and other treats, presented with helpful procedural hints, are an extra bonus. (Mar. 11) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Osso buco is the favorite dish of so many people in tiny Lake Eden, Minnesota, that it's hard for baker Hannah Swenson to discover who shared a helping of the dish from Alfredo's takeout counter, along with a slice of lemon meringue pie from Hannah's own cookie shop, with 50-something flirt Rhonda Scharf just before someone knifed her and stashed her body in the basement of the Voelker property, which she'd inherited from her recently deceased aunt. But unlike her earlier amateur-sleuth capers (Blueberry Muffin Murder, 2002, etc.), Hannah's current investigation has, if not the blessing, at least the grudging consent of her sometime boyfriend, police detective Mike Kingston. That leaves her free to talk to high-school principal Ken Purvis, guidance counselor Gil Surma, and Reverend Bob Knudson, who ate with them last Friday, as well as to question Rhonda's ex-boss Jon Walker and her cleaning lady Marjorie Hanks. When her youngest sister Michelle hands her a bill that turns out to be part of the loot from a bank robbery, Hannah enlists her other-time boyfriend, dentist Norman Rhodes, who'd just bought the Voelker place from Rhonda, to check online newspaper files on his laptop and develop pictures she took of the Voelker basement. Still, it isn't until a second attack that Hannah has the clues she needs to ice the killer. As always, the whodunit pales before the larger question: Will Norman or Mike, or possibly both of them, pop the question before Hannah is even older than Rhonda? Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
