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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
I thought I would start my year of "operation reading rut revolution" by reading a book in the genre I like the least. Mysteries. Cozy mysteries are on the Book Riot challenge and Joanne Fluke is a popular author at my library so I thought I had hit the trifecta of awesome choices for my first book of 2019.
In the small town of Eden, Minnesota Hannah Swenson owns and operates a cookie shop. She's pretty good at it and the local folks are happy to stop in for the latest gossip and order cookies from her for all kinds of events. When Hannah finds one of her favorite regulars shot dead in his truck close to the store and solving the crime will help her brother-in-law Bill get promoted to detective she can't resist helping the guy out.
I mean, she may be a cookie maker and not have any of the training and skills he possesses but he sure is going to be grateful for all her sleuthing. I'm serious here. He is genuinely grateful and thinks she would make a good cop. He says this repeatedly. Who in their right mind would ever think this and if they did perhaps they should not be a detective? EVER? And thus started my hatred of this incredulous piece of crap book. I yelled at this book. Multiple times during my commute. I ranted at my mom, my coworkers and the love of my life when the story went off the rails and that was OFTEN.
I did like her cat.
Other areas that are seriously problematic:
In one scene, Hannah has convinced her sister to work with her to secretly go through the local dentist's office files while Hannah talks to him. From this completely illegal adventure, they find multiple pictures of naked women in the dentist chair. They were knocked out, assaulted and then photographed. Hannah determines that they are from the dentist's father-who is dead-and decides to burn them without telling anyone to save the women in the photos any embarrassment. Embarrassment? They were assaulted you dolt. Also, this is not your decision to make.
There is also a lot of fat shaming for someone who peddles cookies for a living. Poor Bill can't do his job but also needs to lose a few pounds and one of the women she pretends to gossip with to get information out of she makes sure we know will never land a man because of her size and her choices in striped fashion. It went on from there...
If you think we are done destroying evidence, you aren't paying attention! :) Not only does Hannah continue to plow through manipulating everyone around her to get answers she keeps on breaking in to places and finding dead bodies there. Does this give her pause? Oh, hell no. She happily continues to explore and contaminate crime scenes. Then, when she is convinced she knows who did it(she was totes wrong) she confronts the person that actually DID do it in an attempt to further manipulate the situation instead of...wait for it...going to the authorities. In the end, Bill rescues her sorry ass but I really wish he hadn't.
This was written in 2000 and that might give Hannah Swenson a little slack but not a lot. There are plenty of amateur sleuths out there that aren't wreaking havoc on the entire process in devastating ways that should be unrecoverable. I'm not going to even bother getting into the poor writing and character development. There are so many better things to read out there if you like cozy mysteries. Please don't pick this one. It sucks.
In the small town of Eden, Minnesota Hannah Swenson owns and operates a cookie shop. She's pretty good at it and the local folks are happy to stop in for the latest gossip and order cookies from her for all kinds of events. When Hannah finds one of her favorite regulars shot dead in his truck close to the store and solving the crime will help her brother-in-law Bill get promoted to detective she can't resist helping the guy out.
I mean, she may be a cookie maker and not have any of the training and skills he possesses but he sure is going to be grateful for all her sleuthing. I'm serious here. He is genuinely grateful and thinks she would make a good cop. He says this repeatedly. Who in their right mind would ever think this and if they did perhaps they should not be a detective? EVER? And thus started my hatred of this incredulous piece of crap book. I yelled at this book. Multiple times during my commute. I ranted at my mom, my coworkers and the love of my life when the story went off the rails and that was OFTEN.
I did like her cat.
Other areas that are seriously problematic:
In one scene, Hannah has convinced her sister to work with her to secretly go through the local dentist's office files while Hannah talks to him. From this completely illegal adventure, they find multiple pictures of naked women in the dentist chair. They were knocked out, assaulted and then photographed. Hannah determines that they are from the dentist's father-who is dead-and decides to burn them without telling anyone to save the women in the photos any embarrassment. Embarrassment? They were assaulted you dolt. Also, this is not your decision to make.
There is also a lot of fat shaming for someone who peddles cookies for a living. Poor Bill can't do his job but also needs to lose a few pounds and one of the women she pretends to gossip with to get information out of she makes sure we know will never land a man because of her size and her choices in striped fashion. It went on from there...
If you think we are done destroying evidence, you aren't paying attention! :) Not only does Hannah continue to plow through manipulating everyone around her to get answers she keeps on breaking in to places and finding dead bodies there. Does this give her pause? Oh, hell no. She happily continues to explore and contaminate crime scenes. Then, when she is convinced she knows who did it(she was totes wrong) she confronts the person that actually DID do it in an attempt to further manipulate the situation instead of...wait for it...going to the authorities. In the end, Bill rescues her sorry ass but I really wish he hadn't.
This was written in 2000 and that might give Hannah Swenson a little slack but not a lot. There are plenty of amateur sleuths out there that aren't wreaking havoc on the entire process in devastating ways that should be unrecoverable. I'm not going to even bother getting into the poor writing and character development. There are so many better things to read out there if you like cozy mysteries. Please don't pick this one. It sucks.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
I enjoyed this cookie-related cozy mystery! The recipes that were interspersed were really fun. It took me a little while to get into it because the story was a little dated, but I ended up liking it the more I read. There were some questionable passages, but I think they were a product of the time. Hopefully the more recent books don’t have that type of language, as it took me out of the story.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2025/02/chocolate-chip-cookie-murder.html
I enjoyed this book if I’m honest. I needed a cozy mystery and that’s what I got. Yes, there was some fat-phobia again but it was light years better than Leslie Meier, so I’ll continue the series. My brain is too fried for anything too intense.
I enjoyed imagining Hannah driving around Lake Eden. This book was a good first step into reading mysteries.
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
*** February book club ***
Cozy, funny, cute.
This is an easy read, it’s entertaining and made me smile sometimes.
There are many characters - which sets the scene for small town communities and developing a background cast for a series. I’d love to meet some of the characters again in the future.
Noticeably, commentary on weight in the book is disruptive and unnecessary for the story.
It was published in 2000, maybe it’s a symptom of cultural pressure, or maybe it’s intended to develop a tension between the profession of the main character (the owner of The Cookie Jar) and how much value the world ascribes to body type.
I don’t know that I’d expect that much depth in the writing style.
Skipping over those parts, it is obviously entertaining that a small town baker can conduct detective work by deception and snooping around a lot better than a law enforcement officer trying to become detective can.
I’d read more of the series, mainly because recipes are included and it makes for a fun book club get together. And I want to know if Hannah ends up with Norman, or Mike, or happy without either of them.
They’re not literary master pieces, and maybe not everything has to be.
Cozy, funny, cute.
This is an easy read, it’s entertaining and made me smile sometimes.
There are many characters - which sets the scene for small town communities and developing a background cast for a series. I’d love to meet some of the characters again in the future.
Noticeably, commentary on weight in the book is disruptive and unnecessary for the story.
It was published in 2000, maybe it’s a symptom of cultural pressure, or maybe it’s intended to develop a tension between the profession of the main character (the owner of The Cookie Jar) and how much value the world ascribes to body type.
I don’t know that I’d expect that much depth in the writing style.
Skipping over those parts, it is obviously entertaining that a small town baker can conduct detective work by deception and snooping around a lot better than a law enforcement officer trying to become detective can.
I’d read more of the series, mainly because recipes are included and it makes for a fun book club get together. And I want to know if Hannah ends up with Norman, or Mike, or happy without either of them.
They’re not literary master pieces, and maybe not everything has to be.
Great for listening to while running an overnight ultramarathon.