Sugar Cookie Murder

It's Christmas in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and Hannah Swensen is busy baking. It's the annual Christmas buffet where the final tests of the recipes for Hannah's collection for her book Lake Eden Holiday Buffet Cookbook.The party is going good, until Martin Dubinski shows up with his brand new wife, Brandi Wyen - showgirl? stripper? Or something else that he married after a 4 day courtship in Las Vegas.Everyone is surprised at Martin's sudden marriage, especially his ex-wife Shirley and his mother Babs. They had both thought Martin might be going to remarry Shirley. They weren't too thrilled to see Brandi wearing a $25,000 fur coat and an even more expensive engagement ring.Things start getting really exciting when a blizzard starts and everyone is stuck at party, and then Hannah stumbles over the body of Brandi, stabbed with an antique cake knife, in the parking lot.Since no one had left, Mike Kingston (one of Hannah's boyfriend) and the detective on the scene, decides that the killer must still be there and for once, he let's Hannah do some investigating on his behalf, as they try to solve the crime before anyone finds out that a murder has been committed.Hannah slowly whittles down the suspects until, the digital photographs Norman has been taking of the food and the guests for Hannah's cookbook, lead to the clue that finally solves the crime.Highlights:Hannah's relationship with her two boyfriends, the super sexy cop, Mike Kingston and the not so sexy, but awfully nice dentist Norman Rhodes. I want Hannah to make up her mind about which one she really wants, but then again, I don't because they're both great.Hannah's and her sisters. The almost bursting pregnant Andrea, who's married to Bill, the new sheriff and who can't wait to help Hannah and her investigation. It beats trying to find a horse and riding around for an hour or two to try and bring labor on, which is what's she's been considering. Michelle, the baby sister who is sort of dating police officer Lonnie is always willing to help as much as she can.Their mother Delores, and her new boyfriend, (the suspiciously acting) Winthrop. I can't figure out if he's really suspicious or if Hannah and her sisters think he's suspicious because they can't imagine anyone wanting to date their mother.Old characters. The one thing I love about this series is that characters from previous books are always reappearing in the new books. They may only be there for a paragraph or so but it's nice to see them. Perfect example is Vera and her Silver Fox. And the widows of murder victims in two previous books.Hot Brownies. Hannah's reaction to Mike's constant references to Shawna Lee Quinn's incredible brownies, which are really hot (great). Hannah decides to give him some real "Hot Brownies."Lowlights:Old characters. Although I love the continuity of returning characters, there isn't a lot of explanations, they're just integrated into the storyline and what I loved about Vera and her Silver Fox would mean nothing to someone who hasn't read the previous book. (But I wouldn't want this to change, I think you should always read series books in sequence).This book is 341 pages long and I thought, wow, this should be great. Unfortunately, the book ends on page 168. I don't look at the back of the books before I read them, so the end came so sudden I wasn't expecting it. 169-341 are the recipes.I love the recipes in Joanne Fluke's books, but this is almost a cookbook itself. I like the way the recipes were always at the end of the chapter that they were mentioned. In this one they're all together at the back of the book. At first I thought they weren't including any recipes in the book, because they weren't where they usually were.It's a small personal preference. I think a lot of people will love the way the recipes are set up and the amount. Joanne Fluke has enough recipes from all her books, she maybe should think about creating a separate cook book.Great book. Can't wait for the next one.

Another fun book in this series!!! Love this series and the movies that they have made so far out of them but I think the books give more details than the movies. I bought the hard copies of this series a long time ago and switched to kindle books when i got my first kindle. I am just getting around to rereading them on my kindle now and just love them. Of course there weren't this many when I had the hard books. i can't get enough of her writing!

I read all the Hannah books! They are so wonderful!

Andrea had another girl! The test she took to tell the sex of the baby was 99% accurate and it should have been a boy. Wouldn’t you know she would be in the 1% portion. Tracey, her 5year old was hoping she’d get a sister but her mom said it was going to be a brother. Andrea was sure wrong!

I love the cookbook added to the book!!! Such a great addition. I will definitely be trying some of these recipes.