Gingerbread Cookie Murder

Hannah's skills will be tested even closer to home when she stumbles on a murder scene in her very own condo complex. In fact, the last time anyone really saw the deceased was when he bought some of The Cookie Jar's gingerbread cookies. While trying to determine who might want her neighbor to die, a better question comes up--who DIDN'T have a motive for killing her neighbor?Who would read this: Fans of the authors featured in this book (additional to Fluke is LEslie Meier and Laura Levine).Time to Read: 1 hourRating: 4/5 starsFunny Story: I think I bookcrossed a copy of this book a few years ago.Final thoughts: A cute, timely story for the holidays.

I was ready to start the Blackberry Pie Murder last week when I realized that if you let the Kindle go to the next story after you finish a story and review it, they skip the holiday books with multiple authors, and I had missed the Gingerbread Cookie Murder which comes between Devil's Food Cake Murder and Cinnamon Roll Murder. So I read this out of order, and still enjoyed it. I was also introduced to two authors new to me and plan to read more of theirs in the future. I also plan to try and bake the Linda Kemp's Chocolate Mousse Cake from Leslie Meier's story The Dangers of Gingerbread Cookies. Enjoy! Now it's on to the Blackberry Pie Murder.

The book was just as described. Actually, now that I am reading the book (October 2020), I have found what appears to be dried mold or ash in the book. I don't know where the book was or how this happened but the several of the inside pages are covered in black "stuff". I used wipes to remove.

5/27/16 As of this date, I have only read the Laura Levine story as a part of her series with the Jaine Austen character. I'll update this review when I get to the series in which the other stories are involved. This was a fun story and I almost didn't guess the culprit. My only problem with it is that I wish all the stories were longer. There should be a way to program the formatting of these books so that within an anthology there are chapter demarcations aside from separating demarcations between the stories themselves. If you liked the previous books in this series, I say you should give this one a shot. Have at it because I don't think you'll be disappointed. I can't wait for the next one.

I respect Joanne Fluke's work and I look forward to and enjoy each new book in the Hannah Swenson series. It's as if I know the characters. It's comparable to going to visit old friends. Ms Fluke is good at developing well rounded characters and how they fit in to their community. She takes time for relationships to develop. Her story lines are believable even though Hannah gets by with doing some pretty careless and stupid actions in the pursuit of clues. My complaint is Hannah's fickleness over Norman and Mike. It is inconceivable to believe 2 successful men in this small of a community would stand around twiddling their thumbs while this very average woman tries to decide which one will get her as the prize. Getting a little boring. Over all a very good and pleasant read.

I really wanted to like this book. I love the idea of a mystery series with recipes included, but in all three stories, the writing was terrible (trite, clumsy, and overly-precious. Very amateurish.) and offhand racist and sexist comments were thrown in repeatedly for no reason. Will never read any of these authors again.

I have read books by all three authors and enjoyed them. The books are easy reading and tends to move slowly in some parts of the book. I still enjoy them on my weekend.

If you are thinking about reading these mysteries start at one and work through-although each is it's own story there are bits and pieces in the time line it is more fun to know

I bought this because I love Laura Levine's Jaine Austen books, because I'd read a Lucy Stone mystery a couple of years ago and hadn't been able to remember the name of the author to check out their other books and because I wanted to read a Joanne Fluke story...Three different authors with three different styles - Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen being a likeable character in the right place at the right time to investigate her neighbour's murder; this was light reading interspersed with yummy cake recipes and I was able to work out the identity of the murderer quite quickly. Leslie Meier's Lucy Stone is just as likeable as a wife, mother and dog-owner but as she works for a newspaper her style is more tenacious when she investigates the disappearance of a five year old and subsequently a murder. I've saved my favourite until last; Laura Levine's Jaine Austen is again, for me, laugh-out-loud. This murder occurs within Jaine's parent's retirement complex while she and cantankerous cat Prozac are visiting for christmas and there is plenty of emphasis on her eccentric parents whom I absolutely adore.I liked all three novellos but, for me personally, the Lucy Stone story didn't quite work in the same book as the other two - I would have preferred reading it as a stand-alone story.

I have read a lot of these books in this series but this is the first on a Kindle. Whilst I normally enjoy the recipes in a normal paperback, on a Kindle the go on for ages in long thin columns which is very irritating and probably wasteful of the battery?I was surprised that the story was only quite short, and it finished long before I expected it to. The other story that was with this book was quite good actually so I didn't mind too much in the end.Love the characters in these novels, but I am getting a bit tired of Hannah's triangular romantic involvements..time she made up her mind! Quite a good plot, although I did guess the outcome fairly early on..never mind..always an easy read.

Hannah swensen rocks

Love it

Really good read. 3 complete novellas by different writers set around Christmas. Recipes included. Highly recommended.