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A review by hannah_the_home_librarian
Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke
3.0
Christmas has come to Lake Eden once again! This time, Hannah is investigating the murder of Larry Jaeger, the Christmas tree salesman at the Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot. Typically, I absolutely adore the holiday shenanigans of the Swensen clan and the resulting ensemble of characters such as Mike, Norman, Herb, Lisa, Carrie, etc., but I found that this book lost some of that Christmas charm that the Blueberry Muffin Murder and Sugar Cookie Murder books had.
Mike Kingston, for one is starting to slip further and further down my liked characters list, especially as he continues to "mansplain" things to Hannah in nearly every book. Why Hannah can't finally decide that Norman is 100% a better guy for her than Mike is unbeknownst to me, other than the fact that Mike is, as always, "classically handsome" whereas Norman is always basically described as 'not traditionally handsome, but not ugly'. His last-minute "save the day" attitude when Hannah is constantly involved in danger is also getting a bit repetitive. I wish that this time it had been Norman who saved Hannah since he was already present at the same venue when Hannah confronts the killer of Larry Jaeger. Furthermore, this book, unlike the others of the series, made it much more blatantly obvious which character had killed Larry, which took away some of the enjoyment for me because I like the usual twists and red herrings Joanne Fluke usually has in her stories to make the ending much more satisfying.
Of course, I still enjoyed the Hannah/Norman moments in the book, loved the small mentions of Lisa/Herb and their excitement to hopefully get a puppy, Hannah's interactions with Michelle, Andrea, and her two nieces, and the family Christmas Eve dinner held at the end! However, one of Hannah's former college lovers appearing at various points throughout the book read more like a slap across the face than an interesting plot point. I honestly have no idea why Bradford is even necessary in the plot and why Michelle would refer to him as a college "friend" when he is clearly one of her professors. Furthermore, the book simply ends upon Hannah realizing that is who Michelle brought to Christmas Eve dinner, so now we as readers most likely have to suffer through his inclusion in the next book.
Overall, I enjoyed Plum Pudding Murder and will continue to read the series, but the up and down ratings for this series make me curious as to why the quality between the books in this series is so drastically different when they are written by just one author.
Mike Kingston, for one is starting to slip further and further down my liked characters list, especially as he continues to "mansplain" things to Hannah in nearly every book. Why Hannah can't finally decide that Norman is 100% a better guy for her than Mike is unbeknownst to me, other than the fact that Mike is, as always, "classically handsome" whereas Norman is always basically described as 'not traditionally handsome, but not ugly'. His last-minute "save the day" attitude when Hannah is constantly involved in danger is also getting a bit repetitive. I wish that this time it had been Norman who saved Hannah since he was already present at the same venue when Hannah confronts the killer of Larry Jaeger. Furthermore, this book, unlike the others of the series, made it much more blatantly obvious which character had killed Larry, which took away some of the enjoyment for me because I like the usual twists and red herrings Joanne Fluke usually has in her stories to make the ending much more satisfying.
Of course, I still enjoyed the Hannah/Norman moments in the book, loved the small mentions of Lisa/Herb and their excitement to hopefully get a puppy, Hannah's interactions with Michelle, Andrea, and her two nieces, and the family Christmas Eve dinner held at the end! However, one of Hannah's former college lovers appearing at various points throughout the book read more like a slap across the face than an interesting plot point. I honestly have no idea why Bradford is even necessary in the plot and why Michelle would refer to him as a college "friend" when he is clearly one of her professors. Furthermore, the book simply ends upon Hannah realizing that is who Michelle brought to Christmas Eve dinner, so now we as readers most likely have to suffer through his inclusion in the next book.
Overall, I enjoyed Plum Pudding Murder and will continue to read the series, but the up and down ratings for this series make me curious as to why the quality between the books in this series is so drastically different when they are written by just one author.