25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Politics Get Deadly, March 16, 2004
Hannah's life is very full. Not only is she juggling the demands of running The Cookie Jar, but her brother-in-law is running for sheriff in a very tight race and she's trying to organize the recipes for the Lake Eden cookbook. One night, as she's taking the trash out after her potluck cooking class (a convenient way to test all the recipes to make sure they're right before the book goes to print), she finds the body of Sheriff Grant in the dumpster. Now Bill is suspended from work because he's a suspect, and Hannah must clear him by finding the killer before he drives the very pregnant Andrea crazy cleaning out their house. This also adds major complications to Hannah's relationship with Bill's partner Mike. Meanwhile, her mother is acting strangely, and she needs to get her cat to eat his senior cat food. And she's searching for the missing ingredient in Mrs. Koester's fudge cupcake recipe so it can make the book. Can Hannah juggle all these competing demands?
Needless to say, there's never a dull moment in this book. There are a few times when the murder investigation seems to stall briefly, but the other sub-plots take up the slack. Frankly, I hardly noticed because there is so much else happening. The mystery does progress well, with an ending I figured out a little before Hannah, but not by much. All the characters we've come to love are back, and it's definitely a wonderful visit with old friends. This book contains 10 delicious sounding recipes. (A word about the title recipe. The first edition contains an error. It should read 1 1/2 teaspoons baking POWDER not baking soda. This will be fixed in all future editions.)
Is it possible to get the warm fuzzies from a murder mystery? If so, this is the series to do it. If you like your murder served cozy, look no further then this fun series.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What Is The Secret Ingrediant, June 17, 2004
By A Customer
Hannah Swenson, owner of the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minnesota is having a couple of problems.
First there's the sheriff's race, where Bill, her sister Andrea's husband is running against Sheriff Grant.
Secondly, she's attempting to put together a cookbook filled with Lake Eden's favorite Potluck dishes. And the late Mrs. Koester's fudge cupcakes are proving a problem.
Beatrice Koester's very anxious to have the cupcake in the cookbook, for her husband Ted's sake. He & mom were very close. Unfortunately, the recipe includes 1/2 cup of secret ingredient. It's up to Hannah and her partner Lisa to try and find out what that ingredient is.
So it trial and error as they bake and bake. Hannah's first batch is taking to the Potluck Cooking class that she's teaching at the local community college. (They're testing all the recipes.)
Sheriff Grant is at the college, and Hannah gives him a couple of cupcakes to try out. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to give a review as when she's putting out the trash, Hannah finds the Sheriff's body in the dumpster.
Who'd want the sheriff dead? Did it have anything to do with the election? What about his son's death in a car accident a couple years ago? Or maybe it was the "big case" he always found and solved just before elections.
Things get even worse, when Bill is taken off duty by acting Sheriff Mike Kingston,(Hannah's Boyfriend), as a possible suspect.
Hannah and Andrea have to work hard to find who the killer is, before Bill gets arrested.
Highlights:
Hannah's relationship with her two boyfriends, Mike the Cop and Norman the Dentist. Both great guys, and it's unusual for there to be two boyfriends in a series.
Family and Friends. This series has wonderful relationships between Hannah and her family and her friends. There are a lot of returning characters in each book, you really get to know them well.
Murder Victim - Another unusual thing to this series, is that the murder victim is often someone who has appeared in previous books. Sheriff Grant has been in the books from the first, so it was surprising to have him killed off.
Hannah's cat Moishe. He almost makes me a cat lover.
Great Recipe's.
Lowlights:
Guessing the killer was too easy. I knew who did it very early, but not why, so it was still an enjoyable mystery.
Hannah acting totally stupid at the end of the book. There was no reason for any of it to happen if she had done things a little smarter.
This is a great series. I've already pre-ordered the next one, The Sugar Cookie Murder.
If you're looking for another good series to read while you're waiting, I found a one by Victoria Pade, there's only two books, Divorce Can Be Murder & Dating Can Be Deadly, but they're both very funny along with a good mystery.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Delectable Novel, August 14, 2005
A Kid's Review
Finishing Lemon Meringue Pie Murder, I could not wait to start Fudge Cupcake Murder. How could anyone believe Ms. Fluke would disappoint? It's nearing Halloween in the small town of Lake Eden, Minnesota, Hannah's niece Tracy can't wait for trick-or-treating, and Hannah is teaching a fun cooking class at the Lake Eden school. Hannah is compiling an amount of recipes for the Lake Eden Cookbook, and receives a recipe for fudge cupcakec from Beatrice Koester, but then learns that Beatrice's mother-in-law wouldn't give up the secret ingredient that makes the cupcakes fruity and thick, and Hannah must experiment with other ingredients. After her cooking class, Hannah tries making cupcake test batches, and gives one to Sheriff Grant to try, and when Hannah is about to leave, she discovers Sheriff Grant's body in the dumpster, his shirt smeared with chocolate frosting from one of Hannah's cupcakes. And if that wasn't bad enough, Andrea's husband Bill is accused of murder Grant so he could become the new sheriff! Hannah vehemently investigates the murder once again to clear her innocent brother-in-law. Joanne Fluke has written another great Hannah Swensen mystery with funny characters, a stumping murder, and subtle clues, along with the hilarious subplot of Hannah's attempts to make Moishe, Hannah's lovable tomcat, eat his newly needed Senior Cat Food. Read this book!
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