Publisher's Weekly Review
Veteran narrator Toren draws on her special gift for dialogue in the audio edition of the latest installment in Fluke's popular series describing the adventures of Hannah Swensen, a smalltown Minnesota baker/sleuth. Toren does an effective job of moving the often over-the-top events along, but the highlight is her ability to capture the nuances of individual characters and the speech patterns and flavor of the region. Her turn as Hannah's high-strung and high-maintenance mother certainly delivers palpable energy and enthusiasm, whether she's fretting over the details of her upcoming wedding or visiting Minneapolis with her daughter to solve the sordid prostitution case at the heart of the story. Toren even takes pains to voice the distinctive meows of Hannah's cat. She also handles the recipe segments at the end of each chapter with a pleasant conversational tone. A Kensington hardcover. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Lake Eden's favorite baker, Hannah Swensen (Red Velvet Cupcake Murder, 2013, etc.), finds herself on the wrong end of a police investigation. Dodging lightning on an icy road, Hannah finds herself facing a driver's worst nightmare: Her car hits something, and all of a sudden, there's a body lying on the pavement. Hours later, her mother's fiance, Doc Knight, delivers his terrible findings. The man she hit was alive when Hannah struck him, and he died on impact. Sheriff Bill Todd orders Hannah's arrest and fires Deputy Sheriff Mike Kingston for refusing to bring her in. Eventually, Hannah winds up in the Winnetka County jail, where she spends three days, surrounded by friends and family (and three nights covered in a fuzzy blanket supplied by boyfriend Norman Rhodes), before Judge Colfax grants her bail. Once sprung, amateur sleuth Hannah is faced with an unusual case. She knows who the killer is, but who's the victim? Armed with scant physical detailsheight, weight, approximate age and a diamond set in one of the man's teethHannah sets out to find out exactly whom she killed. The investigation, of course, requires multiple dinners in Hannah's cozy apartment, where she and Norman, her mom and Doc, her sisters Michelle and Andrea (the latter is too mad at her husband, Sheriff Bill, to eat at home), and even Mike brainstorm over plates of Smothered Chicken and Oodles of Noodles as Hannah's cat, Moishe, and Norman's cat, Cuddles, play "chase." It's amazing how little a vehicular homicide charge changes Hannah's life in Fluke's good-natured 19th.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Hannah Swensen, owner of the Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and her family are trying to plan Hannah's mother's upcoming nuptials despite the fact that the bride is constantly changing her mind over the details. Hannah becomes further distracted after she hits a man with her car while driving in a storm and causes his death. Research into the mystery man uncovers an insidious criminal who was a threat to a local family and who had been beaten before Hannah hit him. She still does not let herself escape responsibility and tries to figure out who the man was and his purpose for being in Lake Eden. Fluke offers a new twist to the series with Hannah's upcoming trial for vehicular homicide planned for a future book. The cookie-shop owner's character gains depth with her acceptance of responsibility for a man's death, making this fifteenth in the popular series an emotionally weighty entry. But there's still room for recipes and for Hannah to move toward an overdue decision on the question of which of her two boyfriends she prefers. Readers will be eager for the next installment.--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2014 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Fluke adds another cliff-hanger installment to Hannah Swensen's adventures (after Red Velvet Cupcake Murder). Here, Hannah is responsible for the vehicular manslaughter of a John Doe. The man was lying half dead in the road during a storm when Hannah ran over him. Horrified, she wants to know everything about him, particularly why he was in Lake Eden. Meanwhile, a friend of Michelle's is in another sticky situation. The friend's long-lost sister has just returned, but she doesn't pass the smell test. Is there a connection between John Doe and the "sister"? While Hannah wraps up the mysteries neatly, her own case is not so easily dismissed. She killed a man, and she's going to have to face the consequences. Suzanne Toren infuses the requisite drama and humor into the quirky characters, but at this point the recipes would be better served by a pdf rather than a reading. Verdict Series collections shouldn't miss.-Jodi L. Israel, Birmingham, AL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
