Fudge Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen Series #5) by Joanne Fluke

Good read and good recipes are an added plus!by quilter39564

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November 11, 2009: I like all her books. The recipe idea is rather unique. Wish I had more time so I could try them all. Am reading my way through the whole series.

Oh fudge, another death...,by Kasia_S

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June 22, 2009: Hannah is back with another adventure and as usual there's trouble around her sweet smelling cookie shop. Small town of Lake Eden is plagued by murders, this time it's the Sheriff and he's not a nice guy; there are a lot of people who would want him out of their hair. Things get even more complicated when all eyes fall on her brother-in-law Bill who was running against Grant in the upcoming election and once again Hannah must take it upon herself to help and clear his name. At least her shop isn't a crime scene but her chocolate cupcake is found near Grant's body as he was eating it when someone hit him on the back of his head. The more she sleuths the more dirt she finds about seemingly innocent people who have lived in Lake Eden for years. As usual she does more work than the police, I don't even know why they have a police force there when the town baker solves all the crimes...

The mystery wasn't really tough; I didn't even bother trying to figure out who did it because so many unimportant clues were thrown in that after a while I gave up and simply read the book, waiting to see the answer. I adore this series; I will read it to the very last book written but this hasn't been my favorite so far. It was a bit dry; the sleuthing felt a bit tedious and was interrupted with the commotion of Hannah's recipe collection for the Lake Eden Cookbook, I did enjoy the sub-plot of the mysterious ingredient in the fudge cupcakes, that was fun and I am curious to try and make the recipe myself. My only complaint is that almost every single cookie recipe in Fluke's books call for melted butter, I usually whip my butter for cookies, this is the first time I see this banal way of making sweets, everything has very similar base but the main ingredient is the stand out of the recipe, I would like to see more variation on the techniques, I think people can handle little more than melting fifty sticks of butter though the series.

Another thing that is bugging me and probably everyone else is the Hannah, Mike and Norman triangle. She has two boyfriends as she calls them even though I never see anything going on, these people don't even hold hands! If she gets one kiss once every two books it's an explosive amount of action. I think its hilarious how she can't choose which one she's rather marry if they don't even care to sweep her of her feet. A guy knows if he likes a girl, it's probably a yes or no decision that takes a second, not years for him to make up in his mind. He might not tell the girl he likes her but he will know, and these two are really lame boyfriends who probably haven't even seen Hanna's elbows aren't in any rush to do anything other than talk about mundane things. Norman is sweet and safe but boring and Mike is all ready flirting with other women, louse catches no matter whom you choose. Love is supposed to be Earth shuttering, not a way to settle, even in a book. Lake Eden is a very strange little town, people don't have cell phones or cable and the romance is so old-fashioned I'm shocked people are having any babies at all, they only seem to die there and Hannah has to solve their mysterious deaths. I also noticed the lack of focus on the time line. Halloween season was also barely mentioned, half the time I couldn't remember what time of the year it was, only at the end it was clear that it's October. I felt like the book was a little scattered but still a fun read.

The books are still addictive and cozy;...