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 Plum Pudding Murder Kensington Hardcover October, 2009 ISBN-13: 978-0758210241 ISBN-10: 0-7582-1024-8   Cream Puff Murder Kensington Hardcover February 24, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-7582-1022-7 
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ABOUT THE BOOKS PLUM PUDDING MURDERThe yuletide season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, guarantees a white Christmas, delectable holiday goodies from Hannah Swensen's bakery, The Cookie Jar—and murder. As a shadow hangs over her friends' Christmas wedding, Hannah's determined to cook a killer's goose before anyone else get burned... The Cookie Jar's busiest time of the year also happens to be the most wonderful time...for Christmas cookies, Hannah's own special plum pudding—and romance! Holiday orders are high, and Hannah's slated to provide dessert at the Reverend Knudsen's upcoming nuptials. She's busy as can be and loving it. She also gets a kick out of Larry Jaeger's Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot, a kitschy carnival taking place smack-dab in the middle of the village green. Larry thinks he's crazy like a fox with his wild business schemes, but this time, the entrepreneur may have bitten off more than he can chew. Rumor has it that Larry's in the red—an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discover the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office... It seems quite a few people would have like to fill Larry's stocking with coal and then bash him with it—including his bitter ex-wife, his ex-partner's daughter, a woman he was wooing, and the Crazy Elf Tree lot's extremely exasperated investors... Now, with so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah's running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn't want her to see the New Year... INCLUDES HANNAH'S FAVORITE CHRISTMAS DINNER RECIPES!
CREAM PUFF MURDER With the launch party of her mother's novel around the corner, Hannah has a dress to fit into and a date with her sister, Andrea, at Lake Eden's new health club, Heavenly Bodies. Dragging herself out of bed on a frigid Minnesota morning for exercise, of all things, is bad enough. Discovering a dead body floating in the gym's Jacuzzi? Okay, that's worse. Nor does it help that there's a plate of The Cookie Jar's very own cream puffs garnishing the murder scene. The fact that they were purchased by none other than Hannah's part-time flame, Detective Mike Kingston, is simply the icing on what's shaping up to be one very messy cake... Mike may be the prime suspect in the murder of man-eating bombshell Ronni Ward, but he's by no means the only one. Ronni, a fitness instructor at both the Sheriff's department and Heavenly Bodies, made a nasty habit of throwing her own heavenly body at every man, eligible or not, who crossed her path. Plenty of Lake Eden's ladies won't miss Ronni, including her ex-fiancé's former girlfriend, the angry mother of one of her would-be conquests, and even the mayor's wife. Could any of them have wanted her gone badly enough to make it happen? Mike's recruited Hannah to find out, and, as any suspended, suspected detective would, he's micromanaging her every step of the way...
Between
trying to narrow the list of Ronni's enemies down to fewer than half the
town's female population and resisting the urge to remove Mike from the
running by throttling him herself, Hannah has her plate full. Trouble
is, when it comes to cookies - and to murder - there's always room for
one more.
Summertime has finally arrived in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar bakery, is looking forward to warm, lazy days, eating ice cream, and sharing picnics with friends. But when a family reunion takes a deadly turn, it's up to Hannah to find a killer... Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate, baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar. But she'll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who's 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. 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's corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest! A little snooping reveals that not everyone was celebrating Gus's return. And when Hannah unearths secrets from Gus's past, she discovers many more people with an axe to grind. Now Hannah's got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer -- even if it could be a recipe for her own demise... INCLUDES OVER TWENTY ORIGINAL RECIPES FOR YOU TO TRY!
For Hannah fans who want more than one book a year, this is a very good year! Jo wrote the title Christmas novella in an anthology, CANDY CANE MURDER, to be released in hardcover in October 2007. Her novella appears alongside novellas by Laura Levine and Leslie Meier. Here’s a sneak peek: Bakery owner Hannah Swensen feels a little stuffed in her elf costume--but it's too late to count calories. Lake Eden's annual Christmas gala is upon her and eager children are waiting. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of Bergstrom's Department Store, happily ho-ho-hos his way through the festivities in his Santa suit. But when a trail of candy canes leads to his corpse in a snow bank, Hannah must find Kris Kringle's killer.
KEY LIME PIE MURDER It promises to be a
busy week for Hannah Swensen. Not only is she whipping up treats for the
chamber of commerce booth at the fair, she’s also judging the baking
contest, acting as a magician’s assistant for her business partner’s
husband, trying to coax Moishe, her previously rapacious feline, to end
his hunger strike, and performing her own private carnival act by juggling
the demands of her mother and sisters. With so much on her plate, it’s no wonder Hannah finds herself on the
midway, only moments before the fair closes for the night. As the lights
click off, she realizes that she’s not alone among the shuttered booths
and looming carnival attractions. After hearing a suspicious thump, she
goes snooping – only to discover Willa Sunquist, student teacher and
fellow bake contest judge, dead alongside an upended key lime pie. But who
would want to kill Willa and why? Before long, Hannah is sifting motives
and a list of suspects which include a high school student Willa flunked,
the hot-blooded brothers of a disqualified beauty contestant, a rodeo
cowboy, a baking competitor who failed to win her yearly blue ribbon, and
the college professor Willa was dating. As fair week draws to a close, Hannah cranks up the heat, hoping that
the killer will get rattled and make a mistake. If that happens she
intends to be there, even if it means getting on a carnival ride that
could very well be her last. INCLUDES SIXTEEN ORIGINAL DESSERT RECIPES !
SUGAR AND SPICE, Romantic Suspense Anthology Take two young teachers who’ve fallen in love, and add six unlucky kids who
can’t go home from boarding school for the holidays. Mix it all up with a scoop
of skullduggery, and it’s a recipe for disaster. It’ll take some sleuthing, but
Hannah and her extended family must find out who and what is responsible for
chilling the simmering romance between the two teachers. The clock is ticking
and Hannah hopes she can solve the puzzle in time to deliver the very best
Christmas present of all.
CHERRY CHEESECAKE MURDER
There's no such thing as privacy in Lake Eden, but Hannah never thought
things would go this far. Everyone has been telling her what to do
ever since she got not one but two marriage proposals. The votes are
evenly divided between Detective Mike Kingston and town dentist Norman
Rhodes.
Everything's on schedule until Dean demonstrates a suicide scene with a
prop gun that turns out to be all too real. Hannah's on the case in
a flash. There are plenty of suspects to go around, starting with
the lead actress Lynne Larchmont--one of a slew of female visitors to
Dean's trailer--whose husband Tom is financing the film. Then
there's Tom Larchmont himself, forty years his wife's senior, and smitten
enough to be motivated by jealousy. Ross Barton was constantly
keeping Dean out of trouble...could he have had enough? Local Winnie
Henderson publicly threatened to kill Dean to stop him for moving her
brother's statue. And what about male star Burke Anson? He's
argued with Dean about something mysterious the morning of the murder.
As filming continues, Hannah shifts through the clues, hoping against hope
that the person responsible for Dean's death is half-baked enough to have
made a mistake. When it happens, Hannah intends to be there--ready
to rewrite a killer's lethal script with the kind of quirky ending that
can only happen in Lake Eden. With The Cookie Jar, Hannah Swensen has a
mouthwatering monopoly on the bakery business of Lake Eden, Minnesota. But
when a rival store opens, tensions begin to bubble... At least Hannah has her business partner Lisa's
wedding to look forward to. She's turned one of Lisa's favorite childhood
treats into a spectacular Wedding Cookie Cake. And Lisa's aunt will be
bringing her famous Peach Cobbler to the reception. But Hannah starts to
steam when she finds out that Shawna Lee has been invited--and is bringing her
own Peach Cobbler. Hannah doesn't like having the Georgia Peach in
the mix, especially when both Shawna Lee and Hannah's sometime-boyfriend,
Detective Mike Kingston, are no-shows to the wedding. Hannah has suspected
that Mike is interested in more than Shawna Lee's baking abilities. So
when she sees lights on at the Magnolia Blossom Bakery after the reception, she
investigates--and finds Shawna Lee shot to death. Everyone in town knew The Cookie Jar was losing
business to the Magnolia Bakery--a fact that puts Hannah at the top of the
initial list of suspects. But with a little help from her friends,
Hannah's determined to prove that she wasn't the only one who had an axe to
grind with the Quinn sisters. Somebody wasn't fooled by the Georgia
Peaches and their sweet-as-pie act--and now it's up to Hannah to track down
whoever had the right ingredients to whip up a murder...
Contains 14 delicious recipes for you to try.
While Hannah is baking the day's goodies at The Cookie Jar, the evening's
plans begin to jell. Start with the best Lake Eden culinary creations, add
two of Hannah's "sometime" boyfriends, a pinch of her
ready-to-pop pregnant sister, and a dash of her mother and a new significant
other, an actual British lord, and what do you get? A recipe for disaster,
but the juiciest ingredient is yet to come . . .
The recently divorced Martin Dubinski arrives at the buffet with his new
Vegas showgirl wife--all wrapped up in glitter and fur. His ex-wife,
however, seems as cool as chilled eggnog. And when Hannah's mother's
antique Christmas cake knife disappears, its discovery in the décolletage of
the new--and now late--Mrs. Dubinski puts the festivities on ice.
FUDGE CUPCAKE MURDER*
But before anyone can get a taste of victory,
things go sour. Just as Hannah's emptying the trash, she makes a very
unappetizing discovery: Sheriff Grant's body in the dumpster behind the high
school where she's teaching her cooking class. And if that weren't bad enough,
the poor man still has fudge frosting on his shirt from the cupcake she gave him
earlier. She'd been trying to find the secret ingredient left out of the recipe.
Now she has a more important mystery to crack.
The number one suspect is none other than Bill.
In fact, he's the only suspect. But Hannah's not swallowing it. Plenty of people
had reason to hate Sheriff Grant, starting with all the deputies whose cases he
stole during election years just so he could take the glory. Even his
long-suffering wife Nettie isn't blame-free. Rumor has it the Grants were doing
some serious feuding and had a skeleton rattling around in their closet. Soon,
Hannah's dishing up scandalous secrets, steaming hot betrayals, and enough
nastiness to keep the gossip mill at The Cookie Jar going through several pots
of decaf. And the closer Hannah gets to the truth, the closer she gets to
smoking out a murderer with a very nasty recipe for silencing people. Will
Hannah be able to stand the heat when someone wants her out of the kitchen...
for good? LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER
Here’s a little taste of the story to whet your appetite for Hannah Swensen’s
next adventure: The residents of Lake Eden, Minnesota, are planning to paint the town red,
white, and blue to celebrate the Fourth of July – but the fireworks are
already going off at Hannah Swensen’s bake shop, The Cookie Jar… Hannah Swensen thought she’d finally discovered the recipe for a perfect
life. But her sometime beau Norman Rhodes tosses a surprise ingredient into the
mix when he phones to tell her he’s just bought a house from local drugstore
clerk Rhonda Scharf – which he plans to tear down in order to build the dream
home he and Hannah designed. It seems the plan has been cooking for quite some
time, and Hannah’s shocked. Especially since her ring finger is still very
much bare. The good news is that the soon-to-be-torn-down house is full of antiques –
and Norman has given Hannah and her mother first dibs. They uncover some
gorgeous old furniture, a patchwork quilt… and Rhonda Scharf’s dead body.
Not exactly what they were looking for. A little more sleuthing turns up the
half-eaten remains of a very special dinner for two – and one of The Cookie
Jar’s famous lemon meringue pies. It’s obvious Rhonda was expecting someone
for dinner – perhaps one of the men she was secretly dating. Now it’s up to
Hannah to turn up the heat – and get busy tracking down clues. Starting in her
very own kitchen… Contains 9 delicious recipes for you to try. Between perfecting her Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie and
Chocolate Crunches, Hannah's snooping into the coach's private life and
not coming up short on suspects. And could Watson's
harsh criticism during the judging have given one of the contestants a
license to kill? The stakes are rising faster than dough, and Hannah
will have to be very careful, because somebody is cooking up a recipe for
murder...with Hannah landing on the "necessary ingredients"
list.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MURDER SPECIAL
HARDCOVER EDITION |
The Hannah Swenson Mysteries in order of publication: |
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Copyright © 2001-2009 Joanne Fluke
