Customer Reviews

Peach Cobbler Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It's no secret to Hannah's friends that Hannah is no fan of Shawna Lee Quinn. But that's especially true since Shawna opened the Magnolia Blossom Bakery right across the street from Hannah's own shop. Business is looking pretty poor, and if things don't change soon, Hannah and Lisa might have to close their doors.

On a happier note, Lisa and Herb's wedding day has finally arrived. So what if Shawna Lee has promised to bring her famous peach cobbler to the reception. It's only a minor dark cloud on an otherwise bright day. But Shawna Lee never makes it to the reception. Running by the bakeries afterward, Hannah finds Shawna Lee's dead body. With one of the best motives in town, Hannah knows she's got to act fast to make sure she doesn't wind up behind bars for a crime she didn't commit. But with most of the town at the wedding, who could have committed the murder?

Reading Sugar Cookie Murder, I thought to myself that Shawna Lee would make a great murder victim. Obviously great minds think alike. While the murder aspect starts out a little slowly, I really didn't mind because there was still plenty going on with these friends. And once Hannah finds the body, things really begin to pick up. Clues lead to a place I never would have imagined, but is absolute genius.

Any fan of the series will be pleased with the latest entry. If you aren't, I do recommend starting at the beginning since you really need to read them in order to gain the full appreciation of the characters. I can't wait to visit with them again.

Joanne Fluke weaves a wonderful tale of murder, love, and (maybe) betrayal, spiced with humor, and, of course, mouth-watering treats. There is just the right amount of recipes in this book (I felt the previous book had too many recipes at the end, shortening the story).

The story progresses swiftly, the characters are well defined, and there are many twists, as just as you are sure one person must be the murderer, you find another person who may be even more likely to have done it.

Another murder from a few years ago and over 1000 miles away is woven in with the main story, adding to the excitement, and to the suspect list.

Joanne does an excellent job of wrapping up every loose end and providing closure to every situation that came up, except the enjoyable ongoing struggle of will it be Mike or Norman who wins Hannah's heart.

This was a very satisfying and enjoyable read.

In Peach Cobbler Murder, Hannah becomes humbled as her business takes a nose dive when competition hits town. When one of the co-owners is murdered, Hannah becomes suspect #1. To make matters worse, one of Hannah's beau has been spending time at 'night' with the victim.
Joanne Fluke once again spins magic in a mystery by involving the character's realness. If you didn't like the character of Hannah in the other mysteries by Fluke, you can't but help but fall in step with Hannah as she tries to find the real murderer before she's jailed. By the time she is putting the clues together, you will be cheering her on, as she deals with the personal emotion involved with the 'beau'. And the surprise ending is absoluting Fluke's creativeness - I can't wait for the next one to find out the answer!

This series just gets better and better! After the short but sweet Sugar Cookie Murder, I pounced on Peach Cobbler Murder. I never had a doubt I would be less than pleased. Hannah Swensen is slowly being dragged, kicking and screaming, to bankruptcy by the arrival of a new bakery, the Magnolia Blossom Bakery, right across the street from Hannah's The Cookie Jar. And it doesn't exactly help that the bakery is run by the Southern sisters, flirtatious Shawna Lee and rich widowed Vanessa Quinn. Everyone knows Shawna Lee is Hannah's rival, and when Hannah discovers Shawna Lee murdered with a ruined Southern Peach Cobbler burning in the oven late at night at the Magnolia Blossom Bakery, Hannah's the prime suspect. Hannah starts up the sleuthing once again, but it more urgent this time. To prove her own innocence. While it takes a while for the murder investigation to pick up, Peach Cobbler Murder is one of my favorite Hannah Swensen Mysteries. Plus I LOVED the cliffhanger ending. Read this book!

Well, I have to say that I found this one to be the best of the series so far. Now reader take note...this series of cozy mysteries is not for everyone. For lack of a better word to describe them I am forced to use the words "a cozy, cozy." By that I mean they are as about a cozy as you can get. I love these books. They fall into the category I call my comfort reads.

In this tale our heroine, Hannah Swensen is faced with competition from a new bakery that has been established across the street. Simply put, since the bakery is owned and operated by two sisters who are willing to operate at a loss for at least a year, they are driving Hannah out of business. To make matters worse, there are strong indications that one of the two men in Hannah's life, Mike the cop, is becoming or has been involved with one of the sisters! Of course there is the problem of Hannah finding one of the sisters murdered, shot, lying on the floor of her rival bakery and Hannah becomes a suspect herself...along with about half of the town. Will the Magnolia Blossom Bakery put Hannah's bakery The Cookie Jar out of business? Will Mike be lured away from Hannah? Who killed one of the owners of the rival bakery? Will Mike the cop or Norman the town Dentist ask for Hannah's hand in marriage and more importantly, will Hannah accept either offer? Will Hannah's mother be swept off her feet by the English Nobleman she is infatuated with? Will Hannah's cat manage to finally dig through the locked closet and have unlimited access to the cat food (The Mother Load) stashed there and is her cat actually keeping pet mice in Hannah's closet and feeding them? These are some of the issues being faced by our rather unique baker.

Now for my take on some of the critical comments this series has received: Yes, Hannah can be annoying at times. To be quite frank, I know of no one in real life who is not annoying from time to time. The author has been quite persistent in keeping all of her characters true to form throughout the book. This is one of the things I like; one of the things I look for, i.e. consistency. I know what I am getting. Secondly, I not that a lot of people find the fact that Hannah has two men on the line and is string both of them along not realistic, or at the very least, tiresome and a bit odd. I have no problems with this. I read literally hundreds of book in this genre where a man strings along multiple women and no one seems to find this a bit put offish. A good example is the wonderful cozy Hamish Macbeth Series by M.C. Beaton. Our intrepid Scottish policeman has been stinging the same multiple women and a new one each book, along for at least 26 novels now and no one seems to blink over that. Thirdly, folks seem to be annoyed over the lack of any blatant sexual activity in these books; as a matter of fact, they are indeed rather prudish. I find this wonderfully refreshing in so many ways. Hey, I enjoy a good read dealing with vivid sex and violence every now and then and goodness knows I have enough to choose from if that strikes my fancy at any given time. Like most things though, that gets old real fast too. Forth...No Hannah is not a beauty queen. She is a bit over weight, has wild red hair, no taste in clothing what so ever and is indeed quite outspoken and a bit of a know it all; in other words, she is about like 90 percent of most of the people I know, myself included. As to the main characters aversion to cell phones, computers, fancy cars, etc., well to be quite frank, I share those very feelings and if I could run my life without them as Hannah seems able to do, then I would be right there with her.

This work, like the others in the series is well written. Violence is kept to a very minimum, there is no profanity (again, refreshing), the characters are quite believable and the mystery portion of the story, which is quite secondary to these books, is logical. We are also treated to fourteen new recipes, two of which I have tried and they are delicious. It is filled with the old regular cast of characters with a few new ones thrown in. Again, it is like reading about family after three or four books in the series.

Again, these books are not for everyone. We certainly are not talking the Bronte Sisters here or the works of someone like Jane Austen, no far from it. But what we are given is a few hours of delightful reading that is simply fun! You really do not have to expend a lot of thought energy with these books; they are sort of a type of mind candy...or in this case, brain cookies. These books are a wonderful escape into a far mellower world than we live in. I like that.

And by the way...I am pulling for Norman the Dentist.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

I don't believe I wrote that title. After reading all of the Hannah books, I'm getting to be real down-homey. I aced the wife out in getting the first copy of Peach Cobbler. Liked Sugar Cookie Murder and while I was waiting for this one to come out, I read all the other books in the series. I admit it, I'm hooked. In this family we buy 2 copies of everything. I put mine in my book collection and my wife loans her's out to invite new fans. Fluke, you did it again. Your Hannah series just keeps getting better and better. There are enough other reviewers that will tell you the plot, so I won't bother. I just want to let any prospective mystery lover know that every book in this series is GREAT. Hannah is a small town sleuth "Supreme." Along with friends and family (which you'll get to know) she solves some of the twistiest mysteries imaginable. Her home base is a little bakery/coffee shop called The Cookie Jar. Each book includes some good recipes. I'm a gourmet cook; and because of these books have started baking. Folks are surprised to find out where my recipes come from. Give yourself a treat and get this book. Then get all the other ones.

Before my mom passed away last year she gave me the first book of this series and said read, mom was right as always and I was hooked on this series ever since. Great characters, funny, mysterious. Just all around great. Mom was right, so we should listen to her.. :)

In my review of Fluke's FUDGE CUPCAKE MURDER, I had said I'd read a few customer reviews on Amazon.com, to help me decide which hardback to buy first, THE SUGAR COOKIE MURDER, or PEACH COBBLER MURDER. I have to admit that the reviews discouraged me from the cookie book, due to comments about the story being short, giving the space to almost a full cookbook of recipes. And, graphics on the cover of the cookie book didn't come across nearly as well as the peach and purple, dark gloss of artistic flavor on the cobbler book.

I also have to admit that, though Amazon's fantastic carnival atmosphere and encouragement of customer reviews has me hopelessly hooked, I do still have the needful habit of stepping across thresholds of reality bookstores. In Borders recently, I delicately handled delicious physical copies of both hardbacks.

The cookie book's cover was much more lusciously luxurious in hand than it had appeared in electronic elegance. I was able to measure the exact thickness of pages of plot Vs the run of pages on recipes. As diligent Amazon reviews had warned, the story was almost half the length of Fluke's other books, and, the whole novel takes place at a Christmas party; yet the recipes had a definite draw, dining savory as well as sweet, pushing a sale for salty characters like me.

The cobbler book's cover, live, was even more yummy than its virtual vision. This had it ALL, savory/sweet story with recipes minimalized tastefully in balsamic intensity.

It was a "no contest." I decided to at some point buy the white covered book. But SOON, very soon I would pick the purple "plum."

On April 2, I received my E-mail notification that my order of 4 books, including THE PEACH COBBLER MURDER, had SHIPPED. I entertained myself going online to track the progress of my order, which arrived on April 7th, well ahead of the estimated arrival on April 11-14.

With other books and reviews stacked in prior commitments, I couldn't get to begin reading the peach until May 4th.

After reading nearly half of Peach Cobbler I concluded it to be a fun, light read. The opening scene was a smiling grabber, of sneaking looks out the window spying on the new bakery competition. I could just about hear the stool being dragged by Lisa over to the window. And, Hanna's fluctuating frowns with attempts to stay positive were entertaining.

Tracey was adorable. Yep, she'd be a great ambassador. Reminded me of Sidney Sheldon's WINDMILLS OF THE GODS (of course his novels are darkly addicting instead of sweet and chewy). Loved the way Fluke "snapshot-ed" Lisa's wedding scenes around a couple lines from the ceremony; it created a lovely effect. Hanna's dream wedding was a nice touch.

What makes for comfortable reading in Fluke's series is the collection of warm, cuddly ongoing characters & cat. The town itself is a real draw, along with it's (its) character residents; the whole "kit'n kaboodle" is fun to return to. I know I'll have a ready "in" waiting for greedy fingertips to open to the first page.

I love other cozies too, with their focused amateur sleuths, accompanied by a couple standby characters threading through plots which are often in varied settings or locals and around a new character-set in each novel. It seems that Fluke's larger cast, in contrast to other series, is more regularly interactive, not that this is good or bad; it's just interesting in its uniqueness, and gives a large-scale ease-of-entry into each new book.

Loved the support and compliments Delores gave to Hannah about the Peach Cobbler, and Delores's change in old patterns by perfectly timing the phone call to Hannah while she was waiting for the con-artist lending institution with the nice guy quitting that day. Delores was "there" yet not intrusive, pushy, or overly direct in her implied offer to help with the financial flukes. It was nice to see the cutting edge of Delores mellow with her new love interest. Her daughters might end up growing to meet her, instead of the other way around, and it was fun to watch Hannah and Andrea's comical resistance to their Mom's "Regency" aristocrat.

This book read as scrumptiously as dribbling hot almond butter over peach cobbler crust. It was definitely proof of a series author successfully reaching beyond each book with new releases. Fluke's dialogue was more relaxed, descriptions more vivid and crisp, and characters were successfully stretching their struts in pleasant, upbeat ways.

The surprises in the final 3 pages couldn't have been more delectable if the words had been written in dark chocolate ink.

(This review was originally posted on 5/14/05, with the title, "Freeze The Flavor of Southern Peaches.")

Kudos from Linda Shelnutt

We all know the trouble with so many "murder series" is that although we love the characters - the plots and actions often get just plain "stale!" Well, "Peach Cobbler Murder" - the fifth book in Joanne Fluke's "Hannah Swensen Recipe Murders" proves that her readers needn't worry about this author! "Peach Cobbler Murder" is probably one of the best books in the series! It is delightful!

Likewise, Hiro Kimura's cover art brilliantly showcases Joanne Fluke's work as usual. What a terrific artist!

Hannah and Lisa face grim competition in the form of Georgia transplants, Shawna Lee and Vanessa Quinn, when the two southern belles open up a bakery directly across the street from their own shop. They are barely making a profit and news of their competitions' exquisitely decorated shop, does nothing to alleviate Hannah's fears.

Her fears are even more compounded when she realizes that she faces competition not only with her bakery, but with her heart. Mike is increasingly seen in the company of Shawna Lee!

Hannah tries to focus on the business and puts her energy instead into Lisa's wedding and worrying about her mother's new romance. And as always, she turns to and depends on good, faithful, best friend, Norman - who while he may not be as passionate or as good looking as Mike, has always been steady and true. I like them both so much that I hope that Hannah never has to choose!

But suddenly - all in one night, Hannah's competition is "snuffed out!" The mayhem and the murder that Fluke "cooks up" makes this one of her best books yet! An excellent and fun book with scrumptious recipes!

I had started to become slightly disillusioned with this series. The past couple of books (The Fudge Cupcake Murder and The Lemon Merangue Pie Murder) were sweet and homely but much more 'baking' than 'murder'.

The Peach Cobbler Murder is much more like the early books in the series, with the murder at the centre being enhanced by the relationships between the characters and homely atmosphere.

Having discovered about 12 dead bodies by now, it was only a matter of time before Hannah would be considered a suspect! This time the unfortunate victim is Shawna Lee Quinn, who has set up a rival bakery across the street from The Cookie Jar.

If you haven't read any of the other books in the series, expect a homely series that harks back to the novels of Agatha Christie (nothing too gory happens!!)

Although you could easily read this book on it's own, I would recommend starting at the beginning with 'The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder'. Suspend all disbelief and enjoy!