Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Reviewed by Gerti

This is the second book I have read by Joanne Fluke, but it is the first offering in her series of recipe murder mysteries. I was underwhelmed by the last book of hers I read (“The Carrot Cake Murder”), and wondered if the series started out good but weakened over time. The answer to that question is yes!

“Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder” is the first of the Fluke’s Hannah Swensen books, and Hannah is the absolutely likeable owner of a bake shop in Lake Eden, Minnesota called “The Cookie Jar.” In this book, her usual delivery of milk from the Cozy Cow Dairy every morning becomes unusual when she goes into the alley to check on her deliveryman, and finds him shot to death in his truck. Sadly, a bag of her cookies is on the seat next to him!

To save her reputation, and that of her food, Hannah goes the extra mile to find out whodunit, and in the process uncovers a number of other mysteries, including the fact that the football coach beats his wife and that one of the richest men in town was in hock to the man who owns the dairy, where murder victim Ron LaSalle worked. Pretty soon, his boss Max is missing, too, and Hannah works with her policeman brother-in-law to tie up the chocolate chip murder mystery before more bodies show up!

I like this book better than “The Carrot Cake Murder” because Fluke presents more background information here than she does in that book. I gave her writing another try because I suspected showing up late in a series might be like trying to jump into a conversation between two high school friends, because “The Carrot Cake Murder” didn’t present enough info on the characters or town, as though the author felt I should have already known those things. Well here, Fluke tells the whole story of the delicious protagonist Hannah, giving a background on who’s dating whom, what the relationship is between Hannah and her sisters (sorry, Woody Allen), as well as some frightening details on what life is like during a Minnesota winter.

The mystery here in “Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder” is also more substantive than in “Carrot Cake”, with a few more twists and turns, and the whole effort feels more thought out. While the other novel was meringue, this book is as hearty and filling as a loaf of zucchini bread. Once you start reading Fluke’s mysteries (with recipes included!) you’ll want another helping, too.