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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 84 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 delicious lighthearted mystery Sep 29, 2004
By Harriet Klausner
Hannah Swenson owns the Cookie Jar Bakery in Eden Lake, Minnesota. Currently she is working her buns off (pun intended) to get ready for the Christmas party and food competition at the community center. Hannah is compiling a book of recipes that the townsfolk are renowned for. Everyone seems to want to be included in the cookbook so Hannah is struggling not to ruffle any feathers by showing every dish entered at the party. She also looks forward to spending time with her date police investigator Mike Kingston.
Hannah knows that Martin's new wife Brandy Wyn Dubrinksi will make his mother Babs and his former spouse Sherry uncomfortable. However everyone gasps when they see Brandy as she is wearing a $25,000 mink coat that Martin just bought her. While Hannah toils in the kitchen she notices that the door to the back parking lot is ajar. She goes outside only to find Brandy dead with her mother's jewel encrusted Regency serving cake knife in the victim's chest. Hannah begins searching for the real killer.
There should be a warning not to read this book on an empty stomach because the descriptions of food throughout the novel and the recipes at the end will send the pickiest eater on a gorging frenzy. This warm cozy amateur sleuth tale is well plotted and has a sweet eccentric small town support cast, but the main ingredient remains Hannah as she takes another bite out of crime. SUGAR COOKIE MURDER is a delicious lighthearted mystery.
Harriet Klausner
14 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Not Much Mystery Oct 11, 2005
By Griff
This is my first book in the Hanna Swensen series and I'm not sure I will look for others.
I didn't realize what a huge genre of "cookbook mysteries" are out there! I picked up a bunch of paperbacks at a rummage sale and there were a half-dozen of these types of stories all by different authors. That said, "Sugar Cookie Murder" wasn't one of the better ones.
Since I haven't read any of the previous books in this series, I have only this book to base my opinions on and that might be unfair. However, this is supposed to be a stand-alone book.
Anyway, as several reviewers noted, the "mystery" was hardly a mystery at all. The climax was horribly disappointing -- a quick confession and bang, end of mystery. Apparently the cops did nothing but guard the doors and the detective sat in an office being cranky while Hannah and her sisters ran around and solved the "mystery". Almost all the action -- such as it was -- took place in the banquet hall and focused on describing food. Lots of food. With a few million references to how cold it gets in Minnesota and how everyone there can drive through a blizzard like it was a warm sunny day. Obviously there is a history between all the residents which, fortunately, wasn't too heavy-handed although it did get kind of confusing now and then.
I didn't particularly like the characters, either. Again, the shallowness of everyone might have been because it's part of a series and there was more character-building earlier on. But Hannah came off as a bit whiney, controlling and indecisive. She has two guys on a string -- one is too good to be true but kind of ordinary, the other is an obnoxious, self-serving cop who is apparently hot for his secretary and Hannah both making him a class-A jerk, but he's a hunk so Hannah seems to cozy up with him moreso than the other guy. But she uses the other guy whenever it suits her so she's not much better than the cop. The sisters seem two dimensional, the mother is a ditz and the rest of the cast are mere shadows on the wall.
The reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 (too bad sometimes you can't give 0 stars!) was because I am hoping/assuming the earlier books were better and this was just a filler book. If I run across more of Joanne Fluke's books at a rummage sale I might buy them but I'm sure I won't be spending full price -- paperback or hardcover -- for any of them.
11 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Very Disappointing Dec 31, 2004
By WestieLover
I have loved all of the other Hannah Swensen books in this series and was excited to get this one. The story is short, and half the book is recipes that I will never cook. I found the story to be contrived - how convenient for the killer to confess!!! The least believable part had Andrea giving birth all by herself (except for the doctor and nurse), while her friends and family, including her husband, paced up and down the hall outside the delivery room. Has the author ever been in a modern day hospital? Fathers are no longer banished to a "father's waiting room"; they usually participate actively in the delivery room. I've loved all of the other stories in this series, so I will definitely buy the next one and just hope that this book is a "Fluke".
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
This series is going downhill fast May 09, 2006
By Janet Lee Wolfson
This book is a disappointment. The mystery is pretty lame and the constant romantic "tension" between Norman and Mike and Hannah is getting old.
The first half of this book is the story, and the second half is recipes. I will say most of the recipes look pretty good, just be aware that if you buy this book, you are buying a cookbook with a story attached, rather than a substantial mystery with a few recipes in the back.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
I wanted a mystery novel not a cookbook. Feb 08, 2006
By Alisa Beilman
The Hannah Swensen books started off so well, now they are just annoying. Hannah is overbearing, over-critical and plain not likable anymore. This book was sold as a mystery novel when in reality it was a second rate cook book.
See all 84 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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