It’s Christmas many years ago, and topping young Hannah Swensen’s wish list is becoming the go-to baker in Lake Eden, Minnesota. But as Hannah finds out, revisiting holiday memories can be murder . . . With her dream of opening The Cookie Jar taking shape, Hannah’s life matches the hectic December hustle and bustle in Lake Eden—especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas … Eden—especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas Ball from the past in honor of Essie Granger, an elderly local in hospice care. But instead of poring over decadent dessert recipes for the merry festivities, she instantly becomes enthralled by Essie’s old notebooks—and the tale of a woman escaping danger on the streets of New York . . .
Hannah’s surprised by Essie’s secret talent for penning crime fiction. She’s even more surprised when the story turns real. As Hannah prepares to run a bakery and move out of her mother’s house, it’ll be a true miracle if she can prevent another Yuletide disaster by solving a mystery as dense as a Christmas fruitcake . . .
Features Over a Dozen Cookie and Dessert Recipes from The Cookie Jar!
“Series fans will enjoy learning how the Cookie Jar bakery came to be.”
—Publishers Weekly
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Love these light reading books
Tells you how the The Cookie Jar came into business.
I love her writing and the yummy recpies just make it that much better.
This book takes us back all the way to the beginning of The Cookie Jar and how Hannah Swenson’s shop and sleuthing began. I loved it. We get to know her family and town in an entirely new way. We get really experience the butterflies and beginnings of how The Cookie Jar came to be. We understand who she really was at this time in her life and the heartbreaks that led to her coming home when she did and how her life changed direction. For an author to be able to reel you in and share all the feels with you even though you know what comes in the future isn’t easy but Joanne Fluke certainly makes it look like it is. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it.
Thank you to Joanne Fluke, NetGalley, Kensington, and Penguin Random House Publishing Services for the chance to read this book and share my honest thoughts and opinions with others.
Love all her books.
Though well into this mystery series, this novel deals with what Hannah Swensen was doing before she started sleuthing.
Entertaining. Enjoyable. Engaging. The characters are charming. And there’s plenty of baking.
A fun holiday read.
I thoroughly enjoyed finding out about Hannah’s Cookie Jar beginnings. Joanne Fluke makes this particular mystery very touching when she brings the story of Essie to life. She teases us with it throughout the book and ends with the answers. There is one little mystery connected that I would like to know the answer to, though, although I will see if any other readers catch on.
Delores, Hannah’s mother, plays a key role in everything that happens to the futures of all her girls and even a friend. She comes through in the midst of her own grief. Delores turns out to be much more likeable now that I know her better. It was fun to read about beginnings and strangely enough, this was the perfect time for it. Ms. Fluke presents this book in the series just when we need it (after the Raspberry Danish Murder book).
Another quick holiday read. The smaller book size and the compelling story had me turning pages at a rapid pace. There was an even lighter tone to this book than the typical Hallmark-esque qualities to this series, perfect for a holiday special.
What I liked about “Christmas Cake Murder”:
A different sort of case than the typical Hannah experience – I don’t want to run the risk of spoiling anything by giving away the plot and its twists, so I will just say that this was a unique case and I thought the way it was handled was fun, even if it was all predictable.
It made me emotional – The ending of the book was very sweet and it touched me. It was a good direction for a book with a holiday theme.
The Hannah history lesson – I really enjoyed learning how Hannah came to be where she was when we first met her. We’d been given snippets of her back story throughout the series, but this was the whole story and I have to say, it’s pretty perfectly done. Everything we already know from the first 22-plus-novellas books in this series seemed to be woven together in context.
What I didn’t care for:
The usual – It’s minor and not unexpected, but the echo-clarifications are unnecessary. What surprised me, though, is that apparently Ms Fluke doesn’t always need to write this way, based on what I noticed in a particular aspect of this case.
The Hannah mysteries are always syrupy and sweet, but I expect it and really, there’s a time and a place for it. I like having books I can rely on to not be heavy or dark. As always, Hannah comes through on that.
Characters are fun, familiar. Stories are good. Always look forward to trying out some of the new recipes
Enjoyed reading. Like this author.
I really am a fan of cozy mysteries and this series is one of my favorites
Great recipes.
A very yummy story and the recipes are excellent. I sent them to Sailors who are away from home.
Intriguing who-done-it, and recipes too! Can’t ask for more than that!!
I have liked all the books in this series and look forward to her next book in this series
Was this written for a juvenile?
Needed a good editor. Sentences were not complete at times. I thought this book was #26 but now wonder if it was the first since it introduces the characters. If I had read this as the first book I would not have read any more in the series. It did have a great book within the book which kept me interested.
I like cozy mysteries. They are quick reads with good plots. We
Love the recipes!
Writing was childish, this book more appropriate for teens.