Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Review: Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke is the latest in a fun, light mystery series. I have enjoyed all of this series - makes me smile and enjoy figuring out the 'whodunit' along with sleuth and cookie maven Hannah.

Summary: 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. Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion. 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!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...

This book, like the others in the series, is not hard-core mystery. It's not real deep but it does have a number of facets. The characters are fun, developed over the course of the series and not so much in each book. I look forward to reading this series just as much as some of the other 'bigger name' mystery series. And the bonus is that she includes cookie and other baking recipes that are mentioned in the book. My family has enjoyed quite a few of these recipes over the years.

Rating: 4/5 stars

1 comment:

bermudaonion said...

This sounds like a lot of fun. After a "heavy" book I need a light read like this.