Plum Pudding Murder

Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke is the latest in her Hannah Swensen Mystery series. From the inside cover flap.~

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’ 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 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 had 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 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…

I really like the Hannah Swensen Mystery series. Hannah is just your normal everyday woman, who runs her own business and solves murders in her free time with the help of her business partner Lisa, her sister Andrea, her mother, and Norman, one of her boyfriends. Her other boyfriend, Mike, works for the Sherriff’s department with Andrea’s husband Bill. Normally Hannah is the one to stumble across the dead bodies, but this time Norman is the first to spot the body. I like this series because I usually figure out the who-done-it right before Hannah and Plum Pudding Murder was on different. Another great thing about the Hannah Swensen series would be all the wonderful recipes that are included in every book. I’ve only tried a couple of the cookies, but they were wonderful. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes to read a light-hearted mystery.

**Disclaimer** I borrowed this book from the public library.