Raspberry Danish Murder

A little over a year ago, I joined NetGalley and Raspberry Danish Murder, the 22nd book in the Hannah Swensen cozy mystery series by Joanne Fluke, was one of the first books I requested. It had just been published, but I was ten books behind in the series. Throughout the last year, I finally caught up and read this one. From what I’d read, given the strange arc the books took a little while ago, it wasn’t going to be good. Forgetting the love/romance change, the mystery itself in this book was very typical and fit well within the boundary or range we’ve seen from the author.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I was sad to see who was killed given (s)he seemed nice in prior books. Sometimes the good ones have to die, I completely understand that as an author of a book series myself. Fluke balanced the past and the present, the known and the unknown in this book trying to find a way to explain how/why Hannah’s husband might or might not stick around. That said, it ended with a cliffhanger bombshell that makes us think… are we going back to the way things were four books ago before the proposal? Wow, I can’t wait to see. I have the next book ready to read, but I haven’t bought the last one yet. I wonder how many more there will be!

I love the recipes in her books. Books are entertaining and easy reads.

Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanne Fluke is the latest A Hannah Swensen Mystery. Hannah Swensen Barton is wondering why her husband disappeared two weeks ago. To get her mind off the conundrum, she is keeping herself busy baking delightful treats for The Cookie Jar. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and people are clambering for baked goods. Hannah gets a late-night call from P.K. Alesworth, Ross’s assistant at KCOW Television, who is using Ross’ car while his is being worked on. It is a video call and they (Hannah and Michelle) can instantly tell that something is wrong with Ross. They witness him crash the car after muttering something about candies in Ross’ desk. P.K. is rushed to the hospital, but he does not survive. It turns out that P.K. ingested a lethal dose of a drug that caused a fatal heart attack via candy sent to Ross’ office. They do not know is if the killer was targeting P.K. or Ross since P.K. has been using Ross’ office at the station. Hannah dives into the case to get answers. Along the way, Hannah discovers that she did not know Ross as well as she thought. Why did Ross leave? Is he trying to protect Hannah? Hannah wants answers, and she starts with uncovering P.K.’s killer.

Raspberry Danish Murder is the twenty-second book in A Hannah Swensen Mystery series and it cannot be read alone. A new reader to the series would be utterly lost. I did enjoy Raspberry Danish Murder better than Banana Cream Pie Murder, but it still does not have the feel of the earlier books in the series. The last few books feel as if they are written by someone other than Joanne Fluke. The book has a nice steady pace and smooth transitions. There is a significant amount of repetition of information (the details of the case). One character gets some information than repeats it to Hannah, then Hannah tells Michelle and then they must share it with Mike and Norman. It was completely unnecessary. The dialogue was stilted, and the characters names were overused. Hannah is unlike herself in Raspberry Danish Murder. She is not the strong, confident woman we are used to, and I miss that Hannah Swensen. She actually worried that Ross left her because she might snore (really). The two mysteries are interlaced with baking, chatting, cooking, drinking coffee (I do not know how they can drink that much coffee) and munching on cookies. Every meal and cookie they bake is described in detail. P.K.’s murder is not the main focus. There is a limited suspect list, and, to my disappointment, the culprit is easily identified. The revelations regarding Ross are more interesting. As more details were revealed, the phrase “marry in haste and repent in leisure” came to mind (I wish the author had not brought Ross into the series). Hannah was quick to marry Ross and she now realizes that the background information he gave her is contradictory (I would say more but I do not want to spoil it for you). There is a dilly of a disclosure and cliffhanger at the end of the book (which will have me reading the next book in this series). There are twenty-nine recipes in the book (too many) and an excerpt from Winter Chill at the end. I give Raspberry Danish Murder 3 out of 5 stars. Raspberry Danish Murder is a book for the die-hard Hannah Swensen fans.

Great series

Well, well, well. This one has me feeling a bit smug, now that I’m through with it.

What I liked about “Raspberry Danish Murder”:
The mystery format – With the way this murder took place, there were so many unknowns and so few ways to narrow down a suspect list. The theme felt like “ambiguous and circumstantial,” as Hannah and the gang muddled through what were fragments at best. Between not knowing the intended target and two mysteries entangled, I never had a clue how it all fit together. Sure, I saw the little red flags that were placed but make them add up? I could not do it.
Hannah’s personal life – For me, this was the most satisfying part of the book. I am pleased with the direction it went, ***spoiler through the end of this section***though I do feel badly for Hannah. I’m going to guess that some readers of this series will groan, figuring this puts us right back where we were, but as I loathed this particular development, I welcome back what will hopefully turn into a better and more obvious choice this time around.

What I didn’t care for:
Does Hannah ever make something that tastes terrible? – Yes, she alludes to it from time to time, but have we ever actually seen her (or Michelle?) experiment with something and spit it out? This is nothing new for this series, however, for some reason it really bugged me this time. Maybe given Hannah’s preoccupied sense of mind?
Dialogue – This isn’t a shocker for this series. There are others that are composed in a way that read with much more fluidity. But spelling every little thing out, as if we’re all a bit dense — characters and readers alike — feels somewhat condescending at times. (Like this supposed Swensen telepathy…until it is something obvious: Hannah prepared to bring the tray of rolled cookie dough to the cooler to chill. Michelle looks baffled but then brightens and asks “You’re brining the cookie dough to the cooler to chill, isn’t that right, Hannah?” ::facepalm::) Let me be clear: I know what I’m getting with the Hannah books. It’s going to be Hallmark-Channel-syrupy and the writing will feel stilted at times. Hannah and Ms Fluke are who they are and I accept that, because I enjoy the series overall. But this repeating back what Hannah just said, like a mildly demented echo, or overstating the obvious makes me roll my eyes from time to time, and some of these characters can be rather…ditzy.
Editing – Oh, if someone would just give me a teacher’s red pen and carte blanche to fix the spelling, grammatical, punctuation, and word-usage errors… (Word-usage: you know, when the wrong name is used or when the intended word should have been ‘meant’ but the word in the sentence was ‘mint’ and of course spellcheck isn’t going to catch it…but the reader will if they are paying any sort of attention.)

I leaned toward three stars for this one, because the front-and-center case was a little meh, despite its format, but the content of Hannah’s personal story arc saved it. I have a few questions and I can’t wait to learn the answers! Isn’t that right, Hannah? 😉

I love listening to the audio book versions of the Joanne Fluke Hanna Swenson mysteries. Hearing the characters voices makes me feel like they are real people.

The Joanne fluke books are fun to read. The characters are likable and the town seems so quaint!

A fun read

I love all of her books!

Not one of her best