Key Lime Pie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery)

Highly-creative confection recipes plumped the pages in KEY LIME PIE MURDER. Not knowing when to stop, the recipes opened themselves into luscious, heavy-laden, in-plot cooking, tasting, and contest judging. Then they incorporated themselves into a turbo-charged, flavor-upgrade including every imaginable slant of sweet & creamy. Yet, the surged concoctions didn't come across as overdone. (The extra hits of coffee maybe helped and were welcome!) The confections won a Literary Blue Prize from my taste buds, and enhanced the delight of light reading. This # 9 in Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen, Minnesota Cookie-Jar series was clearly giving Diane Mott Davidson a run-for-her-pie-crusts as "Queen of The Culinary Mystery."As many culinary mystery series as I've reviewed, this was one of the more successful for causing me to feel like I was literally tasting, sniffing, and munching along with the characters, especially with the judges of the entries in the baking contest for the county fair. (No calories in print, when it's absorbed from eyes to brain; I've had no compulsion yet to eat pages.) A collection of scenes took place inside the ambiance of judging-tasting-sprees back-dropping discussions of town doings and murder. It didn't take much of that for my level of addiction to the sweet treats in this plot to be shoved over the edge of any concern about addiction.What made that addiction achievement seem like such a feat to me was the fact that my natural preference for flavors, even in culinary mysteries, is savory rather than sweet, which is why I was so ecstatic to find Phyllis Richman's Chas Wheatley series a few years ago (Richman, now retired, had established a long running career as a savored food critic for the Washington Post, and every bite of her appreciation for haute cuisine in the high realms of restaurant magic seemed to have been incorporated into her series, which appears to have ... sob ... ended after her third entry,  Who's Afraid of Virginia Ham?  See my reviews).So, what can I say about # 9 in Fluke's series, except that I appreciated her enhanced ability in KEY LIME to use sweet instead of savory to provide a wide-eyed read, which fell easily into a state of "Yum" in mystery heaven.In addition to # 9's surge in texture and flavor of creative confections, KEY LIME seemed to have primed the collection of Lake Eden regulars, including Hannah and Dolores-monster-Mom, into a mode of Cheshire-Cat-relaxation, soaking up the ambiance of living in a world-of-fiction riding gleefully on The New York Times Best Seller List. I swear I could see that type of smug, snugly satisfaction in Joanne Fluke's grinning mug in the photo on this book's jacket (a lovely, perky pose taken at a book signing by her husband, Ruel).Every angle and edge of this book's plot, mood, and style was dreamy, content, and cozy without losing any depth in reading engrossment. Could a reader become intoxicated by a culinary mystery which was high on sugar, caffeine, chocolate, butter, cream ... with all of those served warm, gooey, fresh, and chewy? Well, I say to that, "Yep."So, how was room left for slipping in cultural issues or literary machinations? I have no clue. Yet, Fluke did interject tidbits about attitudes which detectives must develop in order to run their investigations without personal investment hampering perspective. Also, the characters of Norm, Mike, and Moishe, along with their relationships with Hannah and each other, were taken up a few notches in warmth and simple satisfaction.It seemed that Fluke packed into this novel everything she had developed and hoarded in her author's repertoire, and then some. At the same time it felt as if she had enjoyed the heck out of designing new recipes for this plot, and playing new schemes and scenes for its themes.Here lives an author who loves her work, has found her niche within it, and dug down for the long haul (see my Listmania and review of the pilot to her series,  Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) . With warm cookies of every imaginable variety, and pots of coffee forever brewed, brewing, or ready to brew, what else could Fluke do but simmer another sweet, tangy stew of a mystery, in a "one (or more) up" on her past offerings.This one did nicely, and even I, a person who grew up in a professional bakery in The Malt Shop in Florence, Colorado ...see my Amazon Short,  Coal & Coca-cola  ..., was tempted to take time to bake some of these recipes. I hate to accept the fact that my energy for baking is almost gone, which is maybe one of the reasons for my seeking tangy flavor in fiction, which can be found in all types of novels, not exclusively in culinary mysteries.You've outdone yourself on this one, Joanne Fluke.All in good taste,Linda ShelnuttAuthor of several Kindle books and Amazon Shorts, including: Molasses Moon Myrtle's Ultimate Mystery Full Moon Rising (The Books of Gem) New Moon Blues (The Books of Gem) The Rose and the Pyramid (The Books of Gem) Morning Comes: the Pre Dawn Blues - Part 1

Hannah once again finds the body. Good read had me til the end. When reading this, I was looking over Hannah's shoulder.

I really have enjoyed this series and I have been reading them pretty much back to back because they are so good. One thing that has bothered me in the whole series is the occasional shaming comment about certain characters being overweight. But in this book the body shaming was rampant. It’s just not necessary and very harmful. I will still continue to read the series and hope that this was an anomaly because the stories are so fun and I love the characters.

A great read with super recipes thrown in!!! How can you go wrong? ENJOY!!!!

I love Hannah Swensen, but I think Joanne is getting tired of her "romances" with Mike and Norman. It has become obvious in her writting that she wants Hannah to have both men, but that's not going to work. She tried introducing another love interest in the last book I read, but that only brought Mike and Norman together to prevent a relationship from developing. I don't know what's going to happen next with these three, but it's pretty obvious to me that Hannah is physically attracted to Mike, but she doesn't really like him. And she has lots in common with and is great buddies with Norman, but is not physically attracted to him.In this novel both Mike and Norman behave like men. They think like men, talk like men, and don't "get" Hannah's irritation with them. While Norman is portrayed as more sensitive to Hannah's feelings, Mike is just confused. Hannah needs to learn that mem and women have different outlooks on everything and deal with life differently.While Hannah tries to out sluth Mike, she keeps information from him that should be handed over. No police officer is going to share information with a civilian like Hannah expects Mike to do. The suspense and the development of the storyline are very will done, as Joanne always does. She is good at making her characters real and at keeping your attention. The murder is introduced in the Fluke manner with Hannah discovering the body almost before the murder. Her attention to detail and quick pickup on clues is entertaining and fun. Hannah follows the clues and Mike follows Hannah. She is so gung-ho on solving the murder before Mike that once again she almost 'done away with' by the killer. As always, great ending.

Typical Hannah Swenson story without too much mystery between the story of Hannah’s adventures among her friends. Not bad but not exceptional either.

I have been a long time reader of the Hannah series. I actually did not rush right out and get this book because I had been so disappointed in the last one. This book was better than the last entry, but I do feel that the author needs to take heed of her reader's requests to wrap up the whole Mike/Norman/Hannah storyline.This entry, Hannah's overly precocious niece Tracy was only mentioned in passing, and that greatly improved the book, in my opinion. Also, the mystery was given more of a foreground, unlike the last book where the murder took place in the last third of the book. These were the things that made the book more enjoyable. Some have commented that Hannah sounds condescending in her tone or that she is unlikable. I don't feel this way about Hannah. I do, however, feel that for a woman of her age who makes it known that she is independent, owns her own home, her own business, etc., it is a bit unrealistic that she would not have a computer or cell phone. Most businessowners today, even of a bakery, have a computer for billing, ordering, etc.I will continue to read this series as it seems that the mystery is improving by being the main part of the book, and will just have to look past the whole marriage proposal storyline. Actual rating would probably be a 3 1/2.

There's something comforting about this series; I do like a character who's not constructed like Angelina, I love that she has a cat (tho at 23 pounds, it's way too heavy!), and I like the recipes even tho I have no intention of making them. Unless someone has a good recipe for the cinnamon/raisin bread she keeps talking about, I'll give that a shot).I also felt really smart when I figured out the reason for the lie about the Styrofoam coffee cups - and am happy to say I had really no idea who the killer might be, or even why.It's a series that's a little like Lake Woebegon, with added murder. It's a plus, for me, that none of the murders are really ghoulish and nothing really squalid or disgusting actually happens - just nice, clean, random killings, that won't keep you awake at night with the horrors.

Love all Joanne Fluid books, easy reading and with a bit of murder mystery included AND of course you get recipes! What's not to love!!

Loved it

Good read

Very good read