Strawberry Shortcake Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery

Veteran author Joanne Fluke has produced another winner in the Hannah Swensen series. This time the cookie baking sleuth finds her friend Danielle standing over the dead body of her abusive husband, a local high school coach. Never doubting Danielle's innocence, Hannah, with the surprisingly able assistance of her ever so feminine sister, Andrea, tackles a private investigation of the murder. The twists and surprises don't stop and neither do the mouth-watering references to dinners and desserts.Part of the charm of this series is that Hannah is surrounded by nice people and loving, supportive family members. She also has two competing admirers, one, a fix-up by her mother and his, the other a police officer who works for her brother-in-law. Hannah thoughtfully debates the virtues of each since one is movie star handsome and the other is bright and kind. There is no question we'll see Hannah exploring her options next time around. The series is set in Minnesota where the weather is cold but the people are not, but don't start with this book. Please read "The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder" first so you can meet Hannah, her friends, her family and her suspects and not miss a single detail. You won't be sorry, and you'll wait anxiously for next year's book.

I love this series!! I had them all in hardcovers but about 13 years ago when i purchased my first kindle I slowly added these to my kindle and have started reading them all over again. I love the movies also but I feel the books give more in depth details about the storyline.

Big fan and easy and simple recipes.

This book is awesome. Hannah Swensen is an amazing baker and I love the way she can solve murder cases before the police detectives can. I can not wait to read more stores about her.

I love the cozy vibes and characters here. The recipes all sound really good as well. Great escape from reality.

My aunt recommended this series to me and for that I’m grateful.I was needing a genre so I could take a break from my rabbit hole chasing.This series is a pleasant read that not only engages you in the characters arcs but keeps you invested in the outcome of the story.On another positive note: you get very yummy recipes throughout all of the books!

#2 in the series.. and I really enjoy the easy, nice read. The recipes are a big old bonus. Didn’t see the killer till near the reveal!

If you like a good clean mystery, this book, got it for you Joanne fluke has you on your seat as Hana Swinson is chasing to find the next killer. Even those who seen the Hallmark movie this has a lot of good twist and turns that you can’t figure out.

A lovely mystery. It's fun that there are recipes for the cookies and desserts in the book. Liked the characters, especially Hannah's no-nonsense character. But there was one part towards the end when I wanted to scream at the book, don't do it.

One star deducted for diet culture references. Other than that, a good story. Recipes are included, sprinkled throughout the book. Even the audio version.

Joanne Fluke is now on my list of favorite authors. I plan to read the rest of this series and anything else she has written or writes in the future. I have been genuinely surprised by “who done it” in the 2 books I have read so far in the Hannah Swenson series. Also, I love getting the detailed recipes with tips and tricks she writes about in the books. In the past 2 years, I have become an avid reader reader of clean, cozy mysteries (reading over 100 of them). It is a pleasure to add Joanne Fluke and her books to my list of favorites.

Comedic review:YOU WILL ENJOY THIS BOOK IF YOU:1- Want to keep tabs on PLUGGING and UNPLUGGING a vehicle in the winter and also securing a parking space that offers PLUGGING OPTIONS (unnecessarily mentioned 5 times throughout the book) (why does the reader need to know this?)2- Love it when the character's topic of conversation is sidetracked to reveal that the SECRET to keeping coffee hot in a percolator is to add boiling water to begin with (Again.....why does the reader need to know this??).3- You have NEVER seen or made cookies in your entire life because LUCKY FOR YOU EVERY STEP of the cookie making process is revealed throughout character dialogue (the adding, mixing, refrigerating, rolling, dropping in sugar, placing on cookie sheet..... REMEMBER ONLY 12 to a SHEET, and then pressing slightly down so they don't roll as you walk to the oven...... OMG!!! I COULD MAKE THE COOKIES FASTER MYSELF THAN READ THE BOOK!)4- Prefer a KNOW-IT-ALL, SASSY, TACTLESS main character who just HAS to solve the murder mystery because she is UNDOUBTEDLY BETTER than the law enforcement who she is simultaneously EXASPERATED with (because SHE has to find ALL the clues to solve the crime) and ATTRACTED to (I'm rolling my eyes).5- And for the GRAND FINALE.......... If you have the IQ of a gnat and ABSOLUTELY NEED EVERY SINGLE DETAIL to be discussed and laid out for you to fully understand BECAUSE even a DOT-TO-DOT puzzle is just TOO CONFUSING......THEN the Hannah Swenson Murder Mystery Series is totally for you!!But SERIOUSLY.....This was my 2nd Hannah Swenson Murder Mystery novel having already completed the first in the series. After reading the first novel I wasn't overly impressed and definitely noted the cutesy and corny bits but decided to give the series another try because these novels have OVERWHELMINGLY HIGH REVIEWS (???) and I figured it had to be something about ME that just didn't click with the first one. And the post-reading revelation to that is...... NOPE this second novel was EVEN WORSE THAN THE FIRST!The setting of the story is cute and quaint and the idea of a murder mystery in a small town is likable (think Murder, She Wrote series). But where the novel really falls flat is with the CONSTANT inclusion of inconsequential "fluff" (like the cookie making steps, percolator secret and plugging in the vehicle) that FEELS FORCED and it becomes highly IRRITATING when these processes are REPEATED NUMEROUS times throughout the novel (I got it the FIRST TIME and it wasn't necessary then.....)The CONFIDENCE Hannah's character was trying to display as intellect comes off as ARROGANCE and I honestly started to LOATH her. I was really BOTHERED when she made the decision to NOT contact law enforcement after she discovered a break in at a 2 family home and since it was night time she ALSO decided not to inform the other family because they wouldn't be able to get a good night sleep. REALLY? So you stumble upon the seen of a crime and you choose NOT to tell anyone about it because they will be INCONVENIENCED????I feel INSULTED by the author who is CONVINCED her readers are DIM-WITTED IDIOTS. So to MAKE SURE everyone UNDERSTANDS what is going on she has to employ an EQUALLY DIM-WITTED CHARACTER to ensure that there's NO loose ends. Enter Andrea (Hannah's sister) who is a BEAUTY with NO BRAINS.....Hannah has to practically BABYSIT Andrea throughout the novel and poor Andrea can't put ANY OF THE CLUES together (tsk, tsk). So Hannah begrudgingly has to help Andrea connect the dots (because without this help the READER would be COMPLETELY LOST).MY RECOMMENDATION: Read Laura Levine's Jaine Austen Mystery Series.....It's FUNNY in an HONEST way so it does not come across as cutesy or cheesy and the author doesn't patronize the reader in any way. They are truly enjoyable and you won't lose any sleep imagining the details of a gory crime scene because it is all very PG-13 rated. By the way.....you don't have to read the Jaine Austen Mystery series in any order. Just dive right in.SIDE NOTE: I read the kindle version of this book. There were times when a paragraph ended and then the next paragraph continued the story but it was much later in the day (or evening) with new characters and at a new location. It caught me off guard such that I back tracked to see if I missed a page or something. Sometimes in "paper books" they have an elongated space between paragraphs or a line across the center of the page so you can identify that you are fast forwarding to the future. But the kindle version keeps all the paragraph spacing identical.....not sure if this should change.

When the president of Hartland Flour chooses cozy Lake Eden, Minnesota, as the spot for their first annual Dessert Bake-Off, bakery owner Hannah Swensen is thrilled to serve as the head judge. But when a fellow judge, Coach Boyd Watson, is found stone-cold dead, facedown in Hannah’s celebrated strawberry shortcake, Lake Eden’s sweet ride to fame turns very sour indeed. While perfecting her Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie and Chocolate Crunchies, Hannah’s also snooping into the coach’s private life, which yields plenty of suspects. Or could Watson’s harsh criticism during the judging have lethally ticked off one of the contestants? The stakes are rising faster than dough, because somebody’s cooking up a recipe for murder—with Hannah landing on the “necessary ingredients” list. Includes seven delicious recipes!My Thoughts: Hannah Swensen is an intriguing character, with her head for murder investigations and her cozy life in her bake shop, The Cookie Jar. I have enjoyed this character in other novels, and also in the Hallmark movies.Strawberry Shortcake Murder takes us along for the ride as Hannah follows the clues, sometimes accompanied by her sister Andrea.I loved the dialogue between the characters; it often made me smile and helped keep the darker aspects of the story at bay.Meanwhile, two possible suitors are part of Hannah’s entourage, and curiosity about what will happen next in her romantic life kept me turning the pages.

Things are going well for Hannah Swenson. Her cookies are selling well at her shop, The Cookie Jar, and her employee, Lisa, adds a positive contribution to the business. On the personal side,she just had a very nice dinner with Mike Kingston, the Winnetka County Sheriff Department’s Detective. And she and Norman Rhodes, bachelor dentist, are just very good friends. Heartland Flour Company is sponsoring the Heartland Flour Dessert Bake-off in Lake Eden. One of the judges has an unfortunate dental emergency and has to be replaced. Tracy, Hannah’s niece, draws the replacement judge’s name from a bowl, and it’s Coach Boyd Watson!Later that night after the contest Hannah gets an anguished phone call from Boyd’s wife, Danielle!When Hannah gets to the house Danielle takes her to the garage where Hannah discovers Boyd Watson’s lifeless body on the garage floor next to his SUV!Who murdered the coach! Did Coach Watson have secrets that he was hiding? Who else is hiding things about their lives?Follow the clues with Hannah and solve the case as you read Strawberry Shortcake Murder!♥️✝️🐑✡️♥️

Joanne Fluke has given us a strong female protagonist in Hannah Swenson. Hannah is the owner of The Cookie Jar. She is dating a deputy sheriff, Mike, who shows no signs at this time of making a commitment.Her sister, Andrea, is one of the pretty sisters and takes after their mother. Andrea’s husband, Bill, is a detective and a friend of Mike.Hannah gets involved in a murder investigation when her friend, Danielle, asks her to come over right away. When she gets there she finds her friend has a black eye from her husband hitting her. It is not the first time but Danielle refuses to report him. Danielle takes her to the garage where her husband is lying next to his car with his head bashed in from a balpeen hammer. Hannah notifies the police but their response to do no more than a routine investigation makes her angry and determined to do her own investigation rather than see her friend convicted of a crime she didn’t do.Hannah’s investigation turns up an extortion scheme and another dead body. She also is instrumental in clearing up the two murders.I think that this is a book for those who like clean cozy mysteries.

Published in 2002, THE STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE MURDER is second in the so-called “murder she baked” murder mystery series by Joanne Fluke. The series features Hannah Swensen, a bakery owner who lives in small town Lake Eden, Minnesota and is thought of as a “cozy” murder mystery series—a genre in which there is little graphic violence, less graphic sex, and even naughty words are a rarity, and the books are not so much murder mysteries as they are flyweight portraits of the central characters and their community. Fluke writes in a workman like manner, but in truth her mysteries read like a mix of Lillian Braun’s “The Cat Who …” series and Fannie Flagg’s FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFÉ—albeit without the light charm of the former and the depth of the latter.STRAWBERRY finds Hannah acting as judge of a local bake-off, which is itself marred when one of the judges—a popular high school coach who is secretly a wife-beater—is found dead in his garage. Local authorities suspect his long suffering wife, but she denies the accusation, and Hannah believes her. An annoying reporter, blackmail, extortion, and a second murder round out the story. Along the way, Fluke tosses in the recipes Hannah uses at her bakery, “The Cookie Jar.” Hannah’s process is essentially one of elimination, so the killer becomes increasingly obvious as the novel progresses.Fluke’s novels don’t rank with Braun, much less with Sayers or Christie, but they are reasonably well-written and they have the advantage of occupying your mind when you don’t want give your full attention to a novel—the perfect read while waiting in a doctor’s office or in an airport. Mildly entertaining and mildly recommended.GFT, Amazon ReviewerPosted July 2018

I haven’t read many cozy-mysteries so I’m still a novice in this genre, but I must say that this is the best cozy-mystery series I have read so far.Just like the previous book, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, Hannah is likeable as ever, I particularly liked her quick-wittedness and how physically capable she is. The confront scene with a murderer was not only thrilling and suspenseful, but also glorious displaying her physical capability of taking on a villain armed with a shotgun (!!!) not to mention her ability of bluffing.Even in such suspenseful scenes, the author’s wicked sense of humor is evident through the omnipotent narration style, they had me giggle or laugh out loud so many times. Boy, was it hilarious!That said though, as opposed to the first book, I found this book was a bit lengthy for a cozy-mystery.It can be said that this book is more substantial than other typical cozy-mysteries which tend to be fast-paced and shorter. Given the page count (324 pages) I think it is understandable there’s a lot of buildup until it reaches the climax.Nonetheless, with all those ideas set aside, I felt that this book takes too long to get down to the nitty-gritty of the mystery, hinting who the possible murderer is.I did enjoy the side stories such as Lisa and Hannah’s partnership, sisterhood with Andrea, and a romantic triangle with Mike and Norman, but I would have enjoyed this book better if this book was a bit shorter than it actually is. There seem to be some what I found superfluous scenes that could have been cut (in my opinion).The latter part (especially past 70% of the book) and as we inch toward the culprit reveal, I couldn’t put it down. I think I read the rest of the book in one gulp.One of the attributes what I think is distinct to this book is making us attached to the characters even if they are flawed. The victim in this book was an abusive husband and used to beat his wife so badly to the extent she often has a black eye.Before being murdered, Joanne Fluke presented a scene that hints the victim’s humanity, a warm side of him. In fact, my heart mildly squeezed when I found he was brutally murdered, lamenting his untimely death.I think what makes this series special to me is this humanity displayed through the interactions and dialogues between the characters, one of the backbones of the story that makes me smile and warms the cockles of my heart without fail.Other than the aforementioned length issue, I totally enjoyed this second-installment of the series. The more I delve into the series, the more emotionally attached I am to the characters and the setting. I already downloaded the next two books in the series, and I am really anxious to know what incidents are in store for Hannah.

In this second book in the Hannah Swensen series, Hannah hones her detective skills. Her friend Danielle has been battered again by her husband, Boyd Watson. Hannah rushes to her friend's defense, only to find that Boyd has been murdered. Danielle is, of course, the primary suspect but Hannah does not believe that she committed the murder. Hannah joins her sister Andrea in looking for clues. This includes trying to run down the local newspaper reporter, Lucy, and involving her good friend Norman Rhodes. There is no denying the attraction between Hannah and the new detective , Mike, and Hannah is increasingly torn between Mike and Norman as a possible boyfriend. As always, Hannah solves the crime well in advance of the detectives but places her own life in jeopardy. She is saved in the end and the evildoer is caught. I give this book four stars instead of five merely because it is it is quite easy to tell the evildoer's identity.

Amateur sleuth and bakery owner Hannah Swensen tackles a juicy murder served up during the town’s first annual Dessert Bake-Off Competition. When she discovers her friend Danielle standing over the body of her murdered husband, a high school coach and one of the judges of the competition, Hannah firmly believes in Danielle’s innocence. Although there is no shortage of townspeople who have good reason to dislike him, the unfortunate Danielle, who suffered many beatings at her husband’s hands, had not only the opportunity but also a very strong motive for wanting him dead. Hannah sets out to prove Danielle is not the guilty party and she does so while coping with the cold Minnesota winter, two possible suitors, and a second murder. She keeps her energy up by chomping on yummy cookies from her bakery, which she never seems to be without. In fact, if Hannah keeps up with the pace of cookie munching through another couple of books, we will probably read about the 50 pounds she is determined to shed by chasing after a few more murderers. We readers may also have to shed some weight if we make and eat too many of the desserts and cookies from the recipes the author has thoughtfully included in the book. This is another very tasteful murder mystery in the delightful Hannah Swensen series.

I enjoy cozy mysteries; they're light reading and entertaining. The Hannah Swensen Mysteries are considered part of this genre. Amateur sleuth, Hannah, who owns a cookie bakery, investigates murder in a small tourist town in Minnesota. Her side kick is her beautiful sister Andrea whom is married to local police detective, Bill. Hannah has two love interests: Not so handsome dentist named Norman who she enjoys as a friend and seems to respect; meanwhile, there's the handsome police detective, Mike, which she's only physically attracted to and has no respect for as a person or detective. Her mother, Delores, manipulates her personal life.I started off with Chocolate Chip Murder and found it moderately entertaining for the first book in a series, so I ordered the next three books hoping the writing technique such as dialog and character complexity would improve. Unfortunately, there is no improvement.The best part of this book is that I kept reading it tell the end. It took me over half the book to figure out the motive for Coach Watson's murder. However, there was another murder victim whom I thought was obvious the minute this victim disappeared and the motive was immediately understood.Hannah's disregard for the law is the worst part of the book and the series so far. Somehow she manages to tamper with evidence, withhold evidence, steal, lie, breaking and entering and not get reprimanded.Not sure if I would recommend this series yet, I will read the next two books in the series to determine if these are worthwhile.