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Cherry Cheesecake Murder
Автор: Joanne Fluke
Текст читает Suzanne Toren
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Joanne Fluke continues her popular Hannah Swensen mysteries with this mix of crime and confection. Hollywood has come to Lake Eden and The Cookie Jar is snack central for the movie crew. And when the demanding director turns up dead after someone switches the movie’s prop gun with a real gun, there’s a baker’s dozen worth of suspects.
Активность, связанная с книгой
Начать прослушиваниеСведения о книге
Cherry Cheesecake Murder
Автор: Joanne Fluke
Текст читает Suzanne Toren
Описание
Joanne Fluke continues her popular Hannah Swensen mysteries with this mix of crime and confection. Hollywood has come to Lake Eden and The Cookie Jar is snack central for the movie crew. And when the demanding director turns up dead after someone switches the movie’s prop gun with a real gun, there’s a baker’s dozen worth of suspects.
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I just finished this. I needed some light escape reading because I'm up to my eyeballs in working on Prop 8, and there's too much drama and stress with the election and economy. So I recommend hiding in a fluffy mystery about a cookie baker.
Okay... a bit of an improvement over the drama of the previous installment, but not by much. Even with the change of having a movie shoot happening in Lake Eden, Fluke tries to wrap everything up with a tidy bow by having two of the movie production team as Hannah's former university friends. That would have been okay except that we know have a new romantic interest to add to the love triangle already on the go. The fact that all three guys behave as they do (being overly accommodating, IMO) is just so darn fictional it really needs to been taken in with a huge grain of salt. Yes, my binge audiobook reading is probably starting to wear on me, but I cannot help but notice that Fluke has been imbuing our lead protagonist with certain behavior and personality traits that I am not all that keen on. As I noticed in the previous installment, continuity in details isn't Fluke's thing. At one point we learn that Delores (Hannah's mother) is the owner of a laptop computer and then later on we learn that Norman (one of Hannah's now three beaux) "hooked the computer up" for Delores. Really? She needed help with connecting the power cable to the wall power outlet? Little details like that can drive me bonkers. That, and I could have done without Fluke treating her readers like they don't know the first thing about a movie location shoot and explaining everything). Yes, the mystery angle was okay - it helps that there was a surprise mystery that gets revealed - but sometimes that just isn't enough to carry the story. Even the Lake Eden folks were not as fresh and inviting as in the earlier installments.Overall, a cotton candy fluff cozy mystery fun with a movie shoot angle, so long as you don't mind Hannah's ever growing list of beaux and how she, yet again, decides that she needs to be the one to confront the suspect. I think I need to take a break from these stories.
Hollywood has come to Lake Eden and so have some of the people from Hannah’s past.A production company has come to town to shoot scenes for the upcoming movie “Crisis in Cherrytown.” Main Street is shut down for a week to be used as a set for the scenes. The businesses have been compensated to be closed, but The Cookie Jar will be functioning to supply food for the cast and crew.Citizens of Lake Eden are cast as characters and extras for the production. Even Moishe, Hannah’s cat, has a role! Lake Eden is excited and star struck.Among the cast and crew are a couple of old classmates from Hannah’s college days, Ross Barton and Lynne Larchmont. Barton is the writer-producer and Lynne is the leading lady, and the three of them have a lot of catching up to do. Then there is also D.L., Dean Lawrence, the director. Lawrence is a big name director with an ego and eye for the ladies to go with it. After tasting Hannah’s cherry cheesecake, he demands one be delivered to his trailer twice a day.Even though Lawrence is a genius at directing, he is not a genius in personal relations, and has made a number of cast and crew members not fond of him. This becomes very apparent when he demonstrates how he wants a part played and ends up dead on the set. It seems that the prop gun was switched for a real one with bullets.Again, Hannah starts investigating, but changes it to snooping since Mike Kingston is acting sheriff and has told Hannah to stay out of it. Hannah just can’t do that, so her and her team do a little ‘snooping’ to see what can be found. And of course there is dirt to be found.
The mystery part of this one was fine, but the dialogue borders on ridiculous and the love triangle (then square...) is just stupid. And Hannah's obnoxious "humor" is beginning to grate. Describing an anchorwoman as anorexic because she's very thin isn't funny. Hannah isn't funny. I get the feeling Joanne Fluke isn't funny. I've got 5 or 6 more of this series on my shelves, so I'm sure I'll read them eventually. If I didn't own them, though, I think I'd be done with Hannah.
Not her best. Perhaps she's getting tired of this theme?
Another fun read.
This book was okay. It took ages to get going. Not the same charm as the previous ones. I'm really staring to tire of the Mike/Hannah/Norman triangle and was really incensed she added Ross to the mix. I really dislike love triangles and this one is really ridiculous. It's far-fetched the two men would get along so well and be okay with the woman they love dating others. I will not remember this one for any period of time.
Come on, Joanne! Mike is a slut, Norman is everything a woman could possibly want, and this is what you do? Sigh. I give up. You make Hannah look like some kind of nasty tease. Norman needs to go find a woman who won't lead him around by the nose and then go chasing off after some pretty boy who has told her more than once that his job is more important than her! No more, Joanne - I didn't finish this one - - and I am really disappointed. Not only is Hannah such a screw-up that she not only teases two men, but then decides that maybe she wants to try someone new? What? You were afraid if you put her in a stable, loving relationship, we wouldn't read any more? BUZZZZZ! Wrong.....
I give up here. And it is a shame, I was really enjoying seeing Hannah as a strong, thoughtful, considerate and loving woman, well able to make her decisions knowing that she could rely on her own heart. Point me at Norman - I will take him if she doesn't want him!
I give up here. And it is a shame, I was really enjoying seeing Hannah as a strong, thoughtful, considerate and loving woman, well able to make her decisions knowing that she could rely on her own heart. Point me at Norman - I will take him if she doesn't want him!
I am a fan of Joanne Fluke but felt like the solution to this was a little weak somehow. Plus I am in the camp of make up your mind already about which guy you want in your life. But I did enjoy the movie business details, and the recipes, as always are great. There were some fun physical comedy scenes, like when the sisters break into the barn and when the bones fall out of the sky. So I did enjoy this quite a bit and I will be reading the next one, if only to get all the details of the county fair...
The structure of this book was interesting. The murder would happen halfway through, so a prologue showing the incident from the victim's view was written. The book has some heart and it won me over gradually. I was prepared to rate it 3 stars. But the last few pages undid all that goodwill. I'm always a sucker for an unorthodox climax. However that Dolores character not only ruined the mood for me but reminded me of the insufferable antics of that cat that I'd forgotten. I'm taking a hiatus from this series. Until next time. Some time in the far future.
what a hoot! love the cherry cheesecake tie in and recipes!
Come on, Joanne! Mike is a slut, Norman is everything a woman could possibly want, and this is what you do? Sigh. I give up. You make Hannah look like some kind of nasty tease. Norman needs to go find a woman who won't lead him around by the nose and then go chasing off after some pretty boy who has told her more than once that his job is more important than her! No more, Joanne - I didn't finish this one - - and I am really disappointed. Not only is Hannah such a screw-up that she not only teases two men, but then decides that maybe she wants to try someone new? What? You were afraid if you put her in a stable, loving relationship, we wouldn't read any more? BUZZZZZ! Wrong.....
I give up here. And it is a shame, I was really enjoying seeing Hannah as a strong, thoughtful, considerate and loving woman, well able to make her decisions knowing that she could rely on her own heart. Point me at Norman - I will take him if she doesn't want him!
I give up here. And it is a shame, I was really enjoying seeing Hannah as a strong, thoughtful, considerate and loving woman, well able to make her decisions knowing that she could rely on her own heart. Point me at Norman - I will take him if she doesn't want him!
cherry cheesecake murder by Joanne FlukeThis story starts out with Hannah's mother and she's on her case to come to a decision as to who to marry: Mike or Norman and to let the loser down softly.Problem is a show comes to town and casts a lot of the regulars and the producer is a guy Hannah went to college with: Russ.She is baking a cherry cheesecake 2x a day for the director at $50 each along with desserts for the crew after lunch.Hannah does what she does best-finding clues as to who saw the man last before he was killed. So unpredictable.Hannah gets so close to being part of a murder when she questions the right person... Recipes every other chapter. Charts for conversions are also included.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
I just began, not long ago, to read Joanne Fluke. I was drawn by the knowledge that there were recipes tied into these books and maybe I would find something really yummy. I decided to put these books on my bookmooch.com wishlist and see if anyone had any to give away. I was soon rewarded with several of the titles and anxiously awaited their arrival in my mail box. I received and "hungrily" started to read my first book. I was a bit disappointed to see that the recipes were for large amounts, not for the two person family I cook for. Being that I have worked in the food industry I knew that not every recipe, especially those in the baking world couldn't always be cut in half or quarters or whatever.I then received a few more books and happily read through them all the while looking for a good recipe that I could fix for my husband and I. Then I found it "Jane's Mini Cherry Cheescakes"! Wow, these are good. They are so simple and yes very easy to cut the recipe in half without possibility of them being hard or runny or not tasting right. My husband, myself and the neighbors loved them. So, this being my first taste test, this was the book I would review...Hannah Swensen is the owner of "The Cookie Jar", the gathering spot in her small town, after all who doesn't like a good cookie! Hannah has a bad habit of finding dead bodies. Her mother continually tells her she needs to stop doing that and worrying about what people will think. Hannah doesn't see the problem, even though she doesn't like finding dead bodies either. Hannah also has a knack for investigation and she is always eager to investigate these murders. The local police always tell her to let the authorities handle it, but Hannah doesn't listen. In this book there is a film being shot in town and the director, a big shot actor, has been murdered. I won't tell you what happens, you will have to read and maybe indulge in a little cherry cheesecake!Happy eating...oh I meant reading :)
Very good series, with this book being one of the better.
That's what keeps this mystery series interesting and exciting. In a lot of ways the goings on in the small town of Lake Eden are not realistic, but who cares? Hannah and her friends are just so much fun. It took awhile for this book to get going, and the actual murder doesn't occur until over half-way through, but the pacing after that is pretty good. I figured out who the murderer was right away since it seemed to me only one could have done it, but it was fun to find out the motive and to watch Hannah and her crew discover the clues that they needed to put it all together. The book has a Hollywood movie being shot in downtown Lake Eden, and this puts the whole town in a state of excitement. I also loved the parts of the book with Moishe (Hannah's cat) in them. And of course there is lots of food and recipes to keep things going. Altogether not a bad effort in this wonderful cozy series.
This time, Hollywood is coming to Hannah! A small movie crew comes to town to shoot an indy film with an A list director, who happens to also be a real jerk. There are plenty of suspects because almost everyone has a reason to want him dead! Hannah finds a couple of links to her past college days and that leads to some funny sub-plots. I totally adore these characters, and the book was as enjoyable to me as the others. I still think visiting my friends at Lake Eden make for a good time. However, I have some complaints! To start, the mystery doesn't come into play until the last third or so of the book, which I personally don't mind, because I enjoy so much the regular antics of these characters. I'm only mentioning that point because I'm sure not every mystery lover would be as patient with that fact as I am. I was disappointed by Hannah's choice of marriage proposals and I felt like Fluke really dropped the ball for a chance to pursue something good here. And also this was the first of the mystery's where I guessed the murderer from the start. I kept waiting for the curveball that would knock my suspect back off the suspect list but it never happened. I like to think that I'm just good, but I think more likely the handling of this mystery could have been worked out better. I think Fluke does do a great job of keeping the previous murderer's out of the books so that these books can probably be read out of order. I am still waiting for these characters to evolve a bit. I think it could be helpful to the overall series if that happens. Overall this book was still a delight- a lite delight. Don't expect anything too heavy here and you won't be disappointed.
Cherry Cheesecake Murder was one of my first culinary mysteries I read. Although I enjoyed the cozy descriptions I felt a little let down by the story. I also was not keen in the way the book wrapped up at the end, some of the main story lines were ended a bit too quickly as if the author needed a quick ending. I also looked forward to trying the recipes, although I did notice that at the end of a recipe it would talk about alterations to the recipe and that it may need to be changed to turn out the way the recipe described. Which put me of trying them it seemed you could not just follow it straight as written. I did enjoy the setting and the idea was a good one but it seemed so drawn out, and tried too hard. I will maybe try her other books in the hopes they are a bit more solid.......
Easy reading but the plot is equally easy to be forgotten. It's getting tiring to wonder if Hannah will ever make up her mind on who to marry.
I wasn't as impressed with this book as I have been in the past.. I felt we had to wait too long to get to the murder and then it was solved too quickly. But still love the characters!!