Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: Dangerous book if you're dieting...
Review: Another winner in the Cookie Jar mystery series. Hannah has her hands full! She's still in a quandry over two handsome beaus; her sister is still pregnant; her kitty, Moishe, is not happy; her Mother is, as usual, critical and has a secret; Mike, her brother-in-law, is suspect #1 in the murder of the Sheriff that happens to be who Mike is running against during a close election. Said Sheriff just ate one of Hannah's cupcakes minutes before he's murdered and thrown into a dumpster.
Now, all she has to do is get her kitty to eat again, slueth with her expectant sister to get Mike off "suspension pending investigation"; figure out what her Mother is hiding; bake for her thriving business at the cookie jar while she tests recipes and puts together a Lake Eden Cook Book whose deadline has been pushed forward by three months!
The recipes are excellent and all you cookie party gals will find the new Hannah Banana cookie delicious!
Now, don't read the recipes first; she gives a really good clue in the beginning, as to the secret ingredient missing from the Fudge cupcake recipe entry and it was fun to figure it out with her.

Rating:
Summary: What Is The Secret Ingrediant
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Delicious Small Town Murder
Review: If cozies are your cup of tea, you'll savor this latest entry in the popular Hannah Swensen series. It's charming, chatty, pleasant, and easy to digest. Adding to the fun are the several original (and quite good) cookie recipes and enough baking tips to warrant keeping Fudge Cupcake Murder on the shelves in the kitchen.
--Marcianne Miller, author of The Artful Cupcake