Product Description

Bakery owner Hannah Swensen just can't keep her hands out of the batter when murder stirs things up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, leaving the sheriff dead, a deputy accused, and a killer on the loose...For Hannah, life seems to be lacking a certain flavour lately. Maybe it's the local sheriff's election that's got her down. For years, Sheriff Grant's been the iron hand in town. But now, Hannah's brother-in-law Bill is giving the old blowhard the fight of his long, dubious career - and Grant's not taking it well, especially once the polls show Bill pulling ahead. But before anyone can taste victory, things go sour. While Hannah's emptying the trash, she makes a very unappetizing discovery: Sheriff Grant's body in the Dumpster behind the high school where she's teaching her cooking class. And as if that weren't bad enough, the poor man still has fudge frosting on his shirt from one of her cupcakes. The number one - and only - suspect is Bill, but Hannah's not swallowing it. Plenty of people had reason to hate Sheriff Grant. Soon, Hannah's dishing up scandalous secrets, steaming hot betrayals, and enough intrigue to keep the gossip mill at The Cookie Jar going through several pots of decaf. And the closer Hannah gets to the truth, the closer she gets to smoking out a murderer with a very nasty recipe for silencing people...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35173 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780758201539
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In Fluke’s scrumptious fifth culinary cozy (after 2003’s LemonMeringue Pie Murder), Lake Eden, Minn., bakery owner Hannah Swensendiscovers the fudge-stained corpse of overbearing, unscrupulousSheriff Grant in a trash receptacle near her cooking school. Hannah’sbrother-in-law Bill is the prime suspect in the bludgeoning of hisrival for the upcoming sheriff’s election, so Hannah’sabout-to-deliver pregnant sister, Andrea, frantically begs herinvestigative assistance. And to kick it up a notch, Hannah’s currentred-hot squeeze, the acting sheriff, suspends Bill from the force,causing Hannah to come to a rolling boil. Moishe, Hannah’s engagingcat, gives her more grief than comfort as he adjusts stubbornly to hisdotage. While Hannah tries to identify the essential ingredient of acertain cupcake formula taken to the grave by a deceased localhomemaker, most readers will have figured out who the real killer islong before Hannah does. Mix unsavory small-town scandals, an annoyingmarriage-minded mother and quirky, sweet-toothed locals; add agenerous dollop of humor and romantic foible; sprinkle with intriguingrecipes; and you have a slightly cloying though satisfying firesideread.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division ofReed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Politics Get Deadly
Hannah's life is very full. Not only is she juggling the demands of running The Cookie Jar, but her brother-in-law is running for sheriff in a very tight race and she's trying to organize the recipes for the Lake Eden cookbook. One night, as she's taking the trash out after her potluck cooking class (a convenient way to test all the recipes to make sure they're right before the book goes to print), she finds the body of Sheriff Grant in the dumpster. Now Bill is suspended from work because he's a suspect, and Hannah must clear him by finding the killer before he drives the very pregnant Andrea crazy cleaning out their house. This also adds major complications to Hannah's relationship with Bill's partner Mike. Meanwhile, her mother is acting strangely, and she needs to get her cat to eat his senior cat food. And she's searching for the missing ingredient in Mrs. Koester's fudge cupcake recipe so it can make the book. Can Hannah juggle all these competing demands?

Needless to say, there's never a dull moment in this book. There are a few times when the murder investigation seems to stall briefly, but the other sub-plots take up the slack. Frankly, I hardly noticed because there is so much else happening. The mystery does progress well, with an ending I figured out a little before Hannah, but not by much. All the characters we've come to love are back, and it's definitely a wonderful visit with old friends. This book contains 10 delicious sounding recipes. (A word about the title recipe. The first edition contains an error. It should read 1 1/2 teaspoons baking POWDER not baking soda. This will be fixed in all future editions.)

Is it possible to get the warm fuzzies from a murder mystery? If so, this is the series to do it. If you like your murder served cozy, look no further then this fun series.

Delicious!
I really enjoyed "Fudge Cupcake Murder: A Hannah Swenson Mystery" - there is a good mystery to follow, lots of family drama and some amazing dessert recipes as well.

From reading the other reviews listed here, you would think that the mystery is not so mysterious, as everyone seemed to solve it rather early in the story. I may have been the only one that didn't catch on right away, but when all is revealed it made perfect sense. Maybe I got too wrapped up in the family dramas going on in Hannah's life (a pregnant sister, over bearing mother and TWO boyfriends!) to solve the mystery sooner, but the fact that I got lost in this book shows how good it is.

"Fudge Cupcake Murder" gets an A+ from me and I'll be getting my hands on more of the Hannah Swenson series soon! What a great character she is.

By the way, the fudge cupcakes referred to in the title are incredibly delicious!

What Is The Secret Ingrediant
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.