Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Joanne Fluke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 2008 | Series: Hannah Swensen Mysteries

Summertime has finally arrived in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar bakery, is looking forward to warm, lazy days, eating ice cream, and sharing picnics with friends. But when a family reunion takes a deadly turn, it's up to Hannah to find a killer...Between baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar and unravelling the mystery of her cat Moishe's recent strange behaviour, Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate. But she'll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who's in the midst of preparing for a big family reunion. Everyone is delighted when Lisa's long-lost uncle makes a surprise appearance. No one has heard from Gus in twenty-five years - and his arrival has everyone buzzing with excitement.Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion, telling tales of his great success and flashing money for all to see. He's almost as popular as Hannah's scrumptious carrot cake, which is also Gus' favourite dessert. But the next morning, as the whole family gathers for the group photo, one person is missing. Hannah offers to track down Uncle Gus, but her search leads to a shocking find. Over by the bar at the pavilion, she spots two slices of her infamous carrot cake, frosting-side down on the floor - and Gus' corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest!A little snooping reveals that not everyone was celebrating Gus' return. And when Hannah unearths more secrets from Gus' past, she discovers even more people with an axe to grind. Now Hannah's got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer - even if it could mean a recipe for her own demise...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Filled with juicy scandal, delightfully eccentric characters and 21 tempting recipes from Cream Cheese Frosting to Lemon Fluff Jell-O, bestseller Fluke's 10th Hannah Swenson mystery (after 2007's Key Lime Pie Murder) centers on a family reunion that turns deadly. Hannah's friend Marge Beeseman is thrilled when her brother, Gus Klein, who disappeared from Lake Eden, Minn., more than 30 years earlier, unexpectedly arrives. At the big family party, everyone wonders how the elegant, well-dressed Gus heard about the reunion and why he came back. When Gus fails to show up for the group photo the next morning, Hannah finds his body on a pavilion floor—with ants crawling around pieces of her carrot cake nearby. Hannah's malcontented cat, Moishe, and flickers of romance with her devoted dentist and the no-less attentive local police chief add spice to the subsequent murder investigation. The ending will leave cozy fans gasping for breath. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Daily life’s many preoccupations engage Hannah Swensen’s attention. And life in Lake Eden, Minnesota, fairly brims with church activities, cooking, family gatherings, and the demands of a mischievous cat. Moreover, Hannah runs a bakery, and her carrot cake is famed across the region. A piece of that cake shows up one day beside the corpse of her business partner’s uncle Gus. It’s up to Hannah to find out who did him in, and her sleuthing techniques are tested to the limit as she discovers many potential killers who each had good reason to want Gus out of the way. Recipes appear throughout the text, tied to plot developments. There’s even a culinary mystery: What’s the secret sauce on those tasty salmon cakes? The popularity of Fluke’s earlier food-focused mysteries will undoubtedly raise demand for this newest title even beyond its expected audience in the Upper Midwest. --Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books; 1ST edition (February 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758210205
• ISBN-13: 978-0758210203
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joanne Fluke is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels. Like Hannah Swensen, she was born and raised in a small town in rural Minnesota, but now lives in sunny Southern California. She is currently working on her next Hannah Swensen mystery and readers are welcome to contact her at the following e-mail address, [e-mail], or by visiting her website at www.MurderSheBaked.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average Continuation, March 1, 2008

By 

Chic - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I've read all of the Hannah Swensen mysteries, and generally I enjoy them. They are very light fare - I typically finish them in a day or two. That said, some of the story lines are getting old. This particular mystery did not have very much depth and I figured out who the murderer was about halfway through the book. I am getting really sick of the Norman/Mike storyline - it has been dragging on for book after book. It is wholly unrealistic as no men would be waiting around for a woman who is self-described as average at best to decide between the two of them. The story needs to go somewhere fast. I vote for Norman as I just do not see it working out between the arrogant, egotistical Mike and Hannah. This is an okay continuation of the Hannah Swensen mysteries, but the author needs to tighten up the mysteries and resolve the love triangle. If you like the series, you will most likely enjoy this book, but you will probably feel like me - ready for some story lines to be tied up.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Staler than month-old cookies, April 8, 2008

By 

Smeddley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Oh, Hannah, you never change. And I don't know how to stop reading you. Truly, I think this is a series that has run its course. I can no longer believe that Hannah is that much smarter and better than an entire police department, even in a small town. The lengths to which the author goes to smooth this over are also beginning to show - there's too much of a deal made over it. Her involvement - and justifications for it - is mentioned every other chapter, and it's painfully obvious it's a bit of a sticking point.

The mystery itself was run-of-the-mill cozy, nothing great, nothing awful. The recipes, as usual, sound incredible (makes me think the next book should just be a cookbook). Hands (paws?) down the best character is the cat, and even he's getting a little boring, despite the neuroses foisted upon him this installment. Even some of the better secondary characters seemed to lack fizzle, and the whole cast came across as a bit flat. There's not much to make me feel compelled to read forward, other, perhaps, than force of habit. It would take something amazing to turn this series around at this point.

I'd recommend the first few books in the series, then I'd say to wean yourself off them or just get them for the recipes.

47 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Enough Is Enough!, April 13, 2008

By 

T. Dempsey "Page-turner" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I cannot believe I actually made it through to the end of this book. I justified checking it out from the library by telling myself this newest installment should finally wrap up the Norman/Mike triangle. But no such luck. Except for the victim, the scenario is the same in each book - a new dessert, a person found dead with the new dessert nearby, Hannah solving the murder, Hannah in danger, Hannah being rescued by Mike & Norman...DESSERT, MURDER, RESCUE, OH MY, (sing along with me now). The only good thing about this one is that Hannah is less condescending to the people not quite as intelligent as she.

I think the Hannah character is quickly becoming unlikeable. Is she really that much smarter than the entire Lake Eden Police Department? So much so that people beg her to investigate?! She's always just one step ahead of Mike. Another thing I find totally unrealistic (in this book & the previous ones) is that Norman & Mike seem to be fine with Hannah dating both of them at the same time - sitting between them at dinners, having them both walk her to the van. Seriously, are they going to take turns kissing her goodnight? I am also getting tired of the way recipe talk is thrown in so awkwardly (pg 105 & 106 Sunny Vegetable Salad), especially when Hannah is talking to her sisters who don't cook.

I think the author needs to re-evaluate where she is going with this series & wind it up fast before she loses all her fans. If she decides to keep it going, she needs to shake it up a bit.