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.
Sheβs
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
showβs 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.β
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. Flukeβs 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 whoβs on a diet.
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