Blueberry Muffin Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries)
by Joanne Fluke
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joanne FlukeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-01
ISBN: 1575667223
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Kensington Books
Book Reviews of Blueberry Muffin Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries)
Book Review: Deadly Divas & Shivering-Sisters Sleuths
Summary: 5 Stars
As usual, Hannah's morning machinations with Moishe snuggled the story. This time I was reminded of my childhood, when Hannah had awakened seeing her breath in the frigid morning air, as she eased out from the bed covers, in the dark, well before dawn. Her condo building's furnace was off due to a minor glitch, and was fixed prior to her leaving the house for her Cookie Jar shop. In my case the heat was always that low on winter mornings; there was nothing wrong with the furnace, two stories down from my bedroom, in the cellar of an antique brick building.
Maybe it should have make me stronger to endure the test of those cold mornings of childhood. It just made me a shivering little kid. Luckily, I was strong before stepping into my first winter, having arrived with rechargeable batteries which would surge envy from The Energizer Bunny. That's probably the true curse I'm working off.
In spite, actually because of my icy beginnings, I immediately settled into this story by Hannah having her condo's heat turned on without much ado, without her having to do anything at all to cause the fix. She didn't even have to lift a finger to walk through the Yellow Pages for a repair person.
I felt increasingly connected to the setting and plot as Hannah paced through simple survival routines for Minnesota winters, the plugging in and unplugging of block heaters on vehicle engines, breathing through the nose to avoid icing up the window before the defroster begins functioning, etc. Going from warm bed w/cat to work in the morning (with fresh, hot coffee at various points in the process) with a character who loves her livelihood was, for me, a vicarious joy of exotic dreams.
Dolores took a back seat in this plot, almost hiding in the shadow of Hanna's (entertaining, sometimes endearing) bad moods.
This time the morning-phone-call interruption from Hannah's mother, Dolores, encountered less simmering irritation than usual, from both Hannah and Moishe, which was a plus to me, since Hannah and Moishe's clearly and regularly expressed, un-welcoming feelings toward her mother's foibles are understandable, yet upsetting. I keep wondering what reading Moms feel about the repeated rejections of Dolores, though Dolores has obviously mastered bringing out the under-breath hiss in Hannah. Mothering touchy, independent rebels wouldn't be easy, especially when a personality clash is so broad it would span eons, not merely a gap in generations. On the other hand, Dolores, though not a reincarnation of Mommie Dearest, is not an intimation of Mother Teresa, ether.
Enough said. Mothering styles are a valid issue to work with in a cozy mystery, and Fluke develops Hannah's case to the Nth without going overboard. What I really appreciate, though, is that Dolores, and her daughters grow (through the series) to gradually discard some of the relationship sandpaper sheets; and the various means Fluke uses to accomplish this discarding are entertaining, interesting, and realistic.
In this case, Connie Max, deadly diva, was a woman everyone could relish hating, no guilt available. Fluke did a great job of bringing out the hate quotient for this culinary guru. I was disliking the diva so intensely the feeling grew to truly un-cozy thoughts. In fact, the anger almost gave me a rash. The worst (most revealing) part was how easily Connie was able to manipulate people due to the star-struck syndrome. And, of course all this served to kidnap the reader into the plot. I was very much looking forward to Hannah telling off this diva in the royal-est of spades. But the female monster had the lack of class to find a way to avoid Hannah's (to cheer for when it's soooo earned) soul etching syntax.
Enjoyed Hannah's bubbling, feisty anger in this one and the way she fell into sleuthing to beat the band while the coming carnival marched toward it's due date. The community cohesiveness came through in this plot with intensely satisfying flavor.
Andrea and Hannah were the main sleuthing pair in this one, which developed those characters in relationship to each other, emphasizing the fun personality and taste contrasts between the two. I particularly warmed to Hannah's attempts to understand Andrea, attempts to decrease tendencies of "make-wrong." They're just different people, with neither of them possessing "less than" the other in "okay-ness." The contrast here was awesome of Hanna's independent, intellectual-genius, rebel persona to her sister's grammatical-disaster, common-sense-wisdom, applicable real-estate knowledge; to their mother's prior-generation meddlesome-manipulator, critical-parade-rainer ... It's actually hard to put precise terminology on these three totally different women who would curdle better than melted butter poured into vinegar if they didn't have familial blood flowing in their veins.
The contrasting viewpoints of the mini-world of The Shopping Mall provides a good example of the personality dichotomy between Hannah and Andrea. I enjoyed the fact that the sisters were able to represent the pros and cons of Mall convenience, synthetic though it may be, and have both sides be comprehendible as "different strokes for different folks."
Hannah is more open minded than her growls and grumbles would have her appear, and the characters buffering and buffeting her seemed to be stretching, angling their various sides in interesting ways here, all of which made for an easier plot live-in for this contented reader.
One of the most interesting parts of this particular book in the series is the increase of detail on how heavy winters like those in Minnesota are successfully dealt with by residents. The Mall machinations and Winter Carnival shenanigans brought home interesting details in daily habits for winter diehards. I was especially intrigued by the descriptions of the variety of "houses" for the ice fishing contest, with the Mayor's setup taking the cake and icing it, even though his fishing could be said to have flopped from a disastrous "hole in one."
Delivering hot coffee and cookies to this collection of ice fishing houses was a warmth inducing venue in an icy environment, adding to the ease of reader inclusion. That process beautifully brought out the appeal of fresh cookies and hot coffee, and probably highlighted one of the major reasons for the amazing success of this series, which repeatedly gives a solid run for the money to Davidson's Goldilocks Catering. In this age of survival-and-reality TV shows, this lively, realistic winter-world in a small, cohesive community of Fluke's series should easily grab and satisfy readers. It does me.
I predict that this series will soon (if it hasn't already) begin running neck-in-neck with Davidson's well earned coups. Loved seeing bookshelves filled with the recently released mass-market-paperback of Fluke's PEACH COBBLER MURDER. The cover is as gorgeous as the hardback's book-jacket, and the story is definitely plotting upward. (See my review of the Peach, and my Liistmania on Fluke's series.)
The plot's inclusion of an adoption and an unusual mother/daughter relationship of new characters based on that situation added quite a bit of depth to the mystery, along with successful character expansion. This type of emotional gestalt can be worked very well into an amateur sleuth offering, and Fluke does a great job playing on the emotional complexity of the adoption history as it slips into the "now" of an adoptee's maturity.
Lots of intrigue, good sleuthing, character growth & contrast, and winter-win mystique in this one. "Go for it," with warm mittens in the back of your mind, sled in hand. Cozy up!
Don't forget: Cheesecake's in the oven (or in the fridge, as the case may be). Yum.
Linda G. Shelnutt
Summary of Blueberry Muffin Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries)
Preparations are underway for Lake Eden, Minnesota's annual Winter Carnival - and Hannah Swenson is set to bake up a storm at her popular shop, The Cookie Jar. Too bad the honour of creating the official Winter Carnival cake went to famous lifestyle maven Connie Mac - a half-baked idea, in Hannah's opinion. She suspects Connie Mac is a lot like the confections she whips up on her cable TV cooking show - sweet, light and scrumptious-looking, but likely to leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Hannah's suspicions are confirmed when Connie Mac's limo rolls into town. It turns out America's "Cooking Sweetheart" is bossy, bad-tempered, and downright domineering. Things finally boil over when Hannah arrives at The Cookie Jar to find the Winter Carnival cake burnt to a crisp - and Connie Mac lying dead in her pantry, struck down while eating of Hannah's famous blueberry muffins.Literature & Fiction Books
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