Review by Booklist Review
Daily life's many preoccupations engage Hannah Swensen's attention. And life in Lake Eden, Minnesota, fairly brims with church activities, cooking, family gatherings, and the demands of a mischievous cat. Moreover, Hannah runs a bakery, and her carrot cake is famed across the region. A piece of that cake shows up one day beside the corpse of her business partner's uncle Gus. It's up to Hannah to find out who did him in, and her sleuthing techniques are tested to the limit as she discovers many potential killers who each had good reason to want Gus out of the way. Recipes appear throughout the text, tied to plot developments. There's even a culinary mystery: What's the secret sauce on those tasty salmon cakes? The popularity of Fluke's earlier food-focused mysteries will undoubtedly raise demand for this newest title even beyond its expected audience in the Upper Midwest.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Filled with juicy scandal, delightfully eccentric characters and 21 tempting recipes from Cream Cheese Frosting to Lemon Fluff Jell-O, bestseller Fluke's 10th Hannah Swenson mystery (after 2007's Key Lime Pie Murder) centers on a family reunion that turns deadly. Hannah's friend Marge Beeseman is thrilled when her brother, Gus Klein, who disappeared from Lake Eden, Minn., more than 30 years earlier, unexpectedly arrives. At the big family party, everyone wonders how the elegant, well-dressed Gus heard about the reunion and why he came back. When Gus fails to show up for the group photo the next morning, Hannah finds his body on a pavilion floor-with ants crawling around pieces of her carrot cake nearby. Hannah's malcontented cat, Moishe, and flickers of romance with her devoted dentist and the no-less attentive local police chief add spice to the subsequent murder investigation. The ending will leave cozy fans gasping for breath. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A family reunion turns deadly when a long-lost brother suddenly returns to bucolic Lake Eden. Even though it isn't her family that's gathering from across the county to sing, dance, swim and eat in rented cottages on the shores of Eden Lake, Hannah Swensen (Cherry Cheesecake Murder, 2006, etc.) is of course a key player in the Beesemans' family frolic. Who else makes carrot cake worthy of topping off the opening night's dinner? But the real topper is the appearance of Gus Klein, who hasn't been heard from since he drove off one night 30 years ago with the money squirreled away in the family teapot. Marge is thrilled to see her brother, tricked out in a fancy suit and a Rolex, boasting about the string of clubs he owns in Atlantic City. Her twin Patsy is more reticent, and Patsy's husband Mac, who remembers that Gus never repaid the money Patsy lent him, is downright hostile. Marge's husband Jack is angrier still, although no one knows why; his Alzheimer's has erased the cause of the grievance, but not the hurt. So when Gus is found stabbed to death in the lakeside pavilion, suspicion swirls around Jack, and Hannah relies on both her boyfriends--a sexy cop and a loyal dentist--to help her unmask the real killer. Like the Swanville Funeral Committee's famous hot dish (recipe included, along with 20 others), Fluke's tenth uses only familiar ingredients and makes a really big serving. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
