Plum Pudding Murder – Joanne Fluke

Synopsis

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.

My Thoughts

Another visit to my parents’ place, and another Hannah Swensen mystery read!

Now that I’ve got the formula down, I know exactly what to expect from this series. This makes it so much easier to digest, especially with all the bits and pieces that do my head in about this series. I won’t rehash all of that all over again, but I’ll just say that skimming over those parts definitely makes reading these books so much more enjoyable for me.

It’s Christmas again in Lake Eden, and The Cookie Jar is busier than ever. But did we ever expect anything less?

I find it takes longer and longer to set up the murder in these books. We were well over halfway through by the time we got to Hannah discovering the body. But things picked up from there.

I have to be losing my mystery touch – or just overthinking – because I was so certain I had the killer pegged, and I was way, way off base. (I used to be a better ‘detective’, I must be getting rusty.)

For how long it took us to get to the murder, the discovery of the murderer, and the aftermath felt rushed. So, so rushed. It went by so fast, I felt like I got readers’ whiplash.

Overall, now that I have the hang of these books, they’re pretty quick to read, and fairly enjoyable. Hopefully the next one gets to the good bits in a more timely manner.

~ by Aubrey Smith on July 23, 2021.