Plum Pudding Murder (Hannah Swensen Series #12) by Joanne Fluke

From Barnes & Noble

Holiday business is booming at Hannah Swenson's Cookie Jar pastry shop, but the mysterious murder of "Lunatic Larry" Jaeger puts a serious crimp in the season of good cheer. From the looks of it, Larry had as many enemies as Hannah's sugar cookies have sprinkles. With the 12 days of Christmas ticking down and cookie orders piling up, tracking down the killer won't be easy. A clever whodunit with pastry recipe dividends.

From the Publisher

The 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 gets 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 "Lunatic 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 discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office...

It seems quite a few people would have liked 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!

Publishers Weekly

The Christmas season provides the backdrop for bestseller Fluke’s sprightly 12th Hannah Swenson holiday mystery (after Mar. 2009’s Cream Puff Murder). When Hannah, the proprietor of the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minn., stops by the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot one night to pick up a check, she discovers the body of the owner, Larry Jaeger, inside “Elf Headquarters,” the double-wide trailer that was Larry’s home. Hannah’s “slay-dar” has led her to yet another murder victim. With the support of various friends and family, including her lively and manipulative mother, Delores, Hannah investigates. Her sessions in a class on small business practices raise her suspicions about the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot. Cozy fans will cheer as Hannah survives a hair-raising confrontation with the killer to present an elegant Christmas eve banquet. Tempting recipes range from Hot Fudge Sundae Cakes to Triple Threat Chocolate Cheesecake Pie. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Baker Hannah Swenson, star of Fluke's popular cozy series (Candy Cane Murder), is busy with holiday orders when she stumbles across the body of a local businessman, murdered in his office. The list of suspects is long, and Hannah's time is running short, what with her big job catering desserts for the wedding of the season. Along with recipes for a complete Christmas dinner, this will appeal to Fluke's fans and cozy readers. [The first Swenson mystery, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, has been optioned for a Lifetime TV series.—Ed.]

Kirkus Reviews

Sleuthing Minnesota baker Hannah Swensen (Carrot Cake Murder, 2008, etc.) discovers that something just doesn't add up at a local holiday emporium. Even though she accompanies her mother Dolores to only one session of Lake Eden Community College's course in Small Business Practices, Hannah learns a lot about how to succeed in business without really trying. So when Dolores' shop assistant Luanne can't balance Larry Jaeger's books, Hannah wonders why the apparently thriving Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot isn't making any money. Larry's nearly doubled his order of White Chocolate Pumpkin Dreams and Fudge-Mallow Cookie Bars, and holiday shoppers have scarfed down all seven of the Minnesota Plum Puddings she sent him. But when she goes to collect her fee for the treats, she finds both Larry and his plasma TV riddled with bullets. Forget Hannah's inquiry into Carrie Rhoades's sudden unavailability to play bridge with Dolores or go to the movies with her son Norman, one of Hannah's two beaux. Instead, she cross-examines detective Mike Kingston, her other sweetie, to find out who might have it in for Larry. As her cat Moishe demolishes the handmade bird ornaments on her tree, Hannah unravels the tangle of schemes that brought Larry and his flat-screen to an untimely end. Fluke's tale of an unorthodox entrepreneur is really just business as usual. Neither the domestic details nor the staggering number of recipes give the mystery any more traction than an Oldsmobile in a Lake Eden winter.

Product Details

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

Christmas conjures up delightful images -- a lovely Christmas tree with twinkling lights and ornaments, a sumptuous Christmas dinner with everyone's favorite dishes, hot chocolate stirred with a cinnamon stick, and pajama-clad children rushing down the stairs on Christmas morning to see if Santa has left gaily-wrapped presents for good little boys and girls.

Hannah Swensen must have been very naughty this year, because in PLUM PUDDING MURDER, her surprise gift is one very dead Christmas Elf!

Of course the elf is not a real elf. He's Larry Jaeger, owner of the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot in Lake Eden, Minnesota. And now that Hannah has discovered Larry's body, she feels obligated to solve his murder during her busiest season of the year.

Mike Kingston, deputy sheriff and one of Hannah's boyfriends, warns her not to interfere with his official investigation. Norman Rhodes, town dentist and another of Hannah's boyfriends, offers to help her catch the killer. Hannah's two sisters, Andrea and Michelle are in on the search for the killer, along with their mother, Delores Swensen, whose friend is a murder suspect without an alibi.

Larry Jaeger couldn't have picked a worse time to become a murder victim. Hannah's investigation faces a raft of interruptions. There are hundreds of special orders for holiday sweets at The Cookie Jar, Hannah's bakery and coffee shop. Hannah's cat, Moishe, obviously believes that the Christmas tree in Hannah's living room is just a tree and should be treated as such. Norman is worried about the change in his mother, Carrie Rhodes, and asks Hannah to find the time to discover why she's being so secretive.

Somehow Hannah manages to do it all and keep a cool head in the process… until she confronts Larry Jaeger's killer in the icy cold of a Minnesota night. Deep in the woods. Alone. With no one close enough to hear her cry for help. Will Hannah manage to outwit the killer? Or will she become the second victim in the case the Lake Eden Journal is calling the "Crazy Elf Murder"?

Of course there are recipes - over thirty for you to try including the Swensen family's complete Christmas Eve Dinner. Every recipe was taste-tested by my family, friends, and neighbors. The consensus is that Hannah's Minnesota Plum Pudding is to die for, the Fudge Mallow Cookie Bars are incredibly yummy, and you can't eat just one Christmas Lace Cookie.

I hope you enjoy reading PLUM PUDDING MURDER as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm including the recipe for Christmas Lace Cookies so you'll have something to munch while you read. Since it's time for holiday fun, you may want to pick up two more of Hannah's Christmas adventures. SUGAR COOKIE MURDER involves a dead bride no one liked, a Lake Eden Christmas party, a blizzard, and the birth of Hannah's youngest niece. The second half of the book contains over 80 potluck recipes from Lake Eden's finest cooks. CANDY CANE MURDER is a collection of three novellas. In Hannah's story, right along with some yummy cookie recipes, someone does the unthinkable; they murder Santa Claus!

Thanks so much for your wonderful e-mails and snail mails. I just love being Hannah Swensen's biographer!

Jo Fluke

CHRISTMAS LACE COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position

1 and ½ cups rolled oats (uncooked dry oatmeal - use the old-fashioned kind that takes 5 minutes to cook, not the quick 1-minute variety)
½ cup melted butter (1 stick, 1/4 pound)
¾ cup white (granulated) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon flour (that's right - one teaspoon)
½ teaspoon salt
1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 beaten egg (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)
½ cup chocolate chips

Measure out the oatmeal in a medium-sized bowl. Melt the butter and pour it over the oatmeal. Stir until it's thoroughly mixed.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, baking powder, flour, and salt. Mix well.

Add the sugar mixture to the oatmeal mixture and blend thoroughly.

Mix in the vanilla and the beaten egg. Stir well.

Add the chocolate chips and stir the mixture until it is well combined.

Line cookie sheets with foil, shiny side up. Spray the foil lightly with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray.

Drop the cookie dough by rounded teaspoon onto the foil, leaving space for spreading. Don't crowd these cookies together -- no more than 6 or 8 per sheet.

Hannah's 1st Note: I used a 2-teaspoon cookie scoop to form these cookies. It was just the right size.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Pull the foil off the cookie sheet to a waiting wire rack and cool thoroughly on the foil.

When the Christmas Lace Cookies are cool, peel them carefully from the foil and store them in a cool, dry place.

If you want to dress up these cookies for special company, wait until they're cool and drizzle them with melted chocolate chips mixed with coffee. Start with ½ cup of chips mixed with 6 Tablespoons coffee and microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH. Stir until smooth. If the mixture is too thick to drizzle, add additional coffee and microwave in 20-second intervals on HIGH until you're able to drizzle it on the cookies.

Yield: One batch of Christmas Lace Cookies makes about 2 and ½ dozen cookies. This recipe can be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled if you wish.