Creme Puff Murder

Creme Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke is the next in her Hannah Swensen Mystery series. From the back cover.~

Winter in Lake Eden, Minnesota, is the perfect time to curl up by a cozy fire with something--and someone--sweet. But while bakery owner Hannah Swensen can provide herself with the confections, cuddling will have to take a back seat to sleuthing when her sometime-squeeze becomes a murder suspect...

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-fiance'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 more...

Cream Puff Murder is another winner by Joanne Fluke. I love her Hannah Swensen mysteries. They are fast and fun reads with lots of yummy recipes. Hannah, her sisters Andrea and Michelle, her other boyfriend Norman, the mothers, and her business partner Lisa, team up to solve yet another mystery in Lake Eden. With the three main detectives on leave from the case, because of personal reasons, Hannah gets advise on how to work the case from all three. Hannah and her mystery solving team work together to clear their friends and family.

Creme Puff Murder is a wonderful read with twist and turns that keeps the reader guessing right up until the end. I look forward to more books in this series and can't wait to try some of the cookie recipes.