Life is always busy around The Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, and
with early summer coming on its all owner Hannah Swensen
and her partner, Lisa, can do to keep up with all the
orders. So when the mayor's wife sashays in asking for them
to donate over one thousand cookies for a charity luncheon,
Hannah just about fainted. And when Lisa finds out the
theme will be "Turn Over A New Leaf," she volunteered for
the shop to bake apple turnovers, a pastry Hannah had no
recipe for, for the entire three day event -- well, things
were about to get more interesting around the ol' kitchen!
In APPLE TURNOVER MURDER, author Joanne Fluke's 13th book
in the "Hannah Swensen Mystery" series, cookie maker
extraordinaire and amateur sleuth Hannah Swensen is busy
juggling her duties at the bakery, her family's problems,
her love life, and her sense of civic duty. But the balls
are all about to come crashing down when an old
acquaintance shows up in town and threatens to stir up
trouble with a capital T.
The Apple Turnover crisis is solved when Lisa's mother-in-
law volunteers her family recipe and soon an assembly line
of the delicious pastry is in the works and everyone is
busy churning out turnovers. With that problem solved,
Hannah agrees to help Lisa's husband Herb out as his
magician's assistant at the charity talent show.
But when Hannah discovers Dr. Bradley Ramsey dead backstage
during the intermission, with one of her shop's apple
turnovers in his hand, she knows she's got to drop
everything to find out who killed the lecherous professor
before news of her former romantic ties, as well as her
sister Michelle's, are connected to the victim, and their
reputations are ruined. And she soon finds that the good
Doctor had left quite a trail of broken and angry hearts
along the way -- and lots of good reasons for him to be
bumped off.
As with her previous books, Fluke catches her readers up on
Hannah's life as well as the lives of her family and
friends. Hannah's mother Delores is suddenly the "sought-
after" woman in town, her sister Andrea is fretting about a
possibly move, and there is the always interesting question
of which man will Hannah finally settle down with --
policeman Mike or dentist Norman?
Fluke populates her stories with characters that are warm
and down-to-earth -- just the kind of folks you'd invite
over for coffee and cookies. And speaking of cookies --
there are nearly a dozen new, scrumptious cookie recipes at
the end of each chapter -- Yummy!
Joanne Fluke dishes up another delicious serving of
intrigue, with a side of romance and a heaping spoonful of
fun in APPLE TURNOVER MURDER. Cozy mystery readers
and "foodies" alike will enjoy this well-crafted tale.
It's early summer in Lake Ede, MN and The Cookie Jar is
bustling with orders for wedding showers, graduation
parties, and family gatherings. Hannah's just wondering
how they can get it all done when Mrs. Bascomb comes in to
order twelve-hundred cookies for the opening luncheon at
the 3-day charity event she's holding on the campus of
Jordan High. The theme of the event is "Turn Over a New
Leaf" the mayor's wife explains. She wants people to give
twice as much as they did last year. Lisa loves the theme -
- why don't they make turnovers to sell at the
event? "Turnover" a New Leaf... get it? Mrs. Bascomb
thinks that's a marvelous idea. Hannah thinks they're
overworked as it is, but she guesses they can manage if
Lisa has a good turnover recipe. Lisa doesn't, but her
mother-in-law Marge makes the best apple turnovers in the
world, and they set up an apple turnover assembly line
after work in The Cookie Jar kitchen. Now every hour in
Hannah's day is filled. Thank goodness there hasn't been a
murder to investigate for a while!
Hannah vows not to take on any extra work, but she simply
can't refuse when Herb asks her to be his magician's
assistant at the charity event talent show. At least she
had the foresight to give that hideous purple dress she
wore last time she assisted him to some Jordan High
students for a clothing drive. Now she'll never have to
wear it again... she thinks.
The Amazing Herb and his red-haired assistant stop the
show -- literally. Right after their act Hannah finds the
MC of the show, Bradford Ramsey, dead with one of her apple
turnovers in his hand.
Everything is happening at once for Hannah. There's
Norman, who's not being forthcoming about his 3-day trip to
Minneapolis. There's Mike, who's beating himself up over
something. There's Delores, who's not a bit lonely now
that Carrie and Earl are away on their honeymoon because
all the single men in town are squiring her around, There's
Andrea, who's afraid that Bill will take a job in Florida
and they'll have to move. And there's Moishe who's decided
that he wants to learn how to bake.
There's one other concern for Hannah, perhaps the most
important one. She must solve thus murder case before the
authorities start asking probing questions. No way she
wants her former relationship, and her sister Michelle's
not-so-former relationship, with the poetry professor to
become the newest topic on the Lake Eden Gossip Hotline!
Excerpt
Swensen Finds
Another Body
She’s
done it again! During intermission at the Lake Eden
Combined Charities
talent show, Hannah Swensen, Lake Eden Cookie master and
sometime sleuth,
discovered the body of Professor Bradford Ramsey, the
show’s master
of ceremonies. Swensen was backstage because she had had
appeared
as The Amazing Herb's assistant in the act preceding
intermission.
Not
one of the 300 attendees enjoying coffee and apple
turnovers in the
lobby of the Jordan High auditorium was aware that violence
had erupted
only a few feet away on the darkened stage. It was not
until sixteen
minutes after the second act was scheduled to start that
Detective Mike
Kingston announced that the host of the talent show had
been murdered.
It's
common knowledge that Swensen has assisted the authorities
in solving
a record number of murder cases. When I attempted to
interview
her at The Cookie Jar, Swensen's bakery and coffee shop
in Lake Eden,
she said, "Of course I'll help the sheriff's
department in any
way I can, but I prefer to leave crime solving to the
professionals.”
I
contacted Joanne Fluke, author of the NY Times bestselling
mystery series
featuring Hannah Swensen, and asked her if Hannah was going
to refrain
from investigating this latest homicide. When she
finished laughing,
Fluke said that she is already writing about Hannah's
involvement in
Apple Turnover Murder, to be released in hardcover by
Kensington
Books in March 2010. Fluke’s books are well known for
their
delicious recipes (Apple Turnover
Murder has 21!) and she confided that one of
Hannah's apple turnovers
was found at the murder scene.
Joanne
Fluke has been writing about Hannah Swensen since her
culinary mystery
series debuted in 1999. With delectable titles like
Cream Puff
Murder, Key Lime Pie Murder, and Fudge Cupcake
Murder,
Fluke may have to add warning labels to the covers of her
books for
anyone who’s on a diet.
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