I was reading this as a bit of light relief during moments of sleepiness, headachiness, and general weariness. It was like the book version of 'Pushing Daisies', which was rather nice. No dead people coming back to life, but where there was Ned, there is Hannah, and where there was The Pie Hole, there is The Cookie Jar. Hannah Swensen is a nice normal woman, living with her cat Moishe, fending off her mother's attempts at matchmaking, and happily running her little bakery-cum-coffee shop with her assistant Lisa. But when friendly local milkman Ron is found dead in her alley, surrounded by Hannah's cookies, she turns sleuth to help her deputy sheriff brother-in-law solve the case.

It wasn't particularly well written, let's be honest - and some of the speech was so clunky it was painful - but it was a sweet little story nonetheless. It comes with plenty of delicious cookie and candy recipes to try, and the last third of the book is actually a separate, festive Hannah Swensen novella. When a young runaway called Candy breaks into The Cookie Jar to escape another cold night on the street, Hannah and her friends have to use their sleuthing skills to find her family and give her a happy Christmas. Pure fluff, but enjoyable enough for me to go straight ahead and order the next book, the equally scrummy-sounding 'Strawberry Shortcake Murder'! ( )

Due to LT I ran into this series and I like it! Cozy mysteries just work sometimes when you've read more difficult stuff and are busy in the rest of your life. Sometimes the story is slightly predictable but it's always fun to find the killer with a semi-detective. And I like the cookie recipes. I really should try some of them. ( )

The first in the Hannah Swensen series. Enjoyable read. Hannah is a fun character that has a lot of spunk. She is independent and sure of herself. She doesn't plan on being a "detective," but after she finds the body of the dairy delivery man and her brother-in-law needs help solving the murder to be promoted to detective, Hannah puts her ear to the ground to gather information.A good story with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.I am also looking forward to trying some of the recipes...they all sound really yummy! ( )

I read a lot of books covering a very wide range. Many of the books I read are of a serious nature, e.g. history, biography, travel, natural history and technical topics. Every so often I do read fiction and one of my favorite genres, along with fantasy, is the cozy mystery. For the most part these little mysteries are short easy reads and many of them become series. This allows me to get to know the characters, their locations and little quirks. These are my relaxation books and I truly love them.

Joanne Fluke has started a new series with this offering, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and I was absolutely captivated after the first few pages. The setting is in a small town in Minnesota and the heroine, Hannah Swenson owns and operates a small coffee shop which specializes in cookies. Hannah, a bright young lady with a sharp tongue, inquisitive and bright mind finds herself with a dead body in a truck parked in the ally behind her store. Of course, as with most small towns, everyone knows everyone else and Hannah instantly recognized the local young man who delivers milk and dairy products. And so the hunt for the murder begins. It must be noted that Hannah Swenson is a person who has an over active curiosity and in fact is down right noisy; in a delightful way of course. If you want more of a plot outline, read some of the other review, or better yet, read the book jacket which has seemingly been done a couple of times here.

The author's style is quite readable and the story moves at a very nice pace. This particular work contains many of the features I enjoy; no, actually require in the cozies that I read. Great attention to detail, a cast of rather quirky and non-quirky characters, little blood and gore and a mystery solved through sheer brain power and observation are all a part of the mix I enjoy. I suppose this harks back to my reading of Christy, Doyle and their ilk. I also look for progressive and logical clues and absolutely hate it when the author, usually out of sheer desperation, throws in a ringer into the last chapter to "solve" the case. If I am not given progressive clues throughout the book, it holds little interest for me. On the other hand, if I am able to figure out who done it during the first couple of chapters, I never touch the author's books again. This writer and story teller has given me just what I want with this story, and given it in spades.

Now I must confess that I like food and I like animals. This novel provides much cookie lore, recipes and wonderful descriptions of their creation. Hannah has a loveable cat that she shares her life with and I must say that this author knows her cats. I also enjoy just a touch of romance thrown in, and again the author has delivered in this department. Hannah has a mother who is determined to get her married off as soon as possible and presents her with an unending selection of eligible men. Another cozy reading requirement, which while not absolutely necessary, but is nevertheless appreciated, is the inclusion of humor, and again, the author comes through. We get the added bonus of having some very nice cookie recipes sprinkled throughout the book. I know this is not an original ploy, but to be honest, a person can never have too many recipes for good eats. Cats, cookies, cute and smart girl, odd characters and a mystery...what more could you want?

This work was simply a fast and fun read. I see that there have been quite a number of books added to this series since this first one was published and I plan to go through each and every one of them. For those that enjoy this particular genre, you could do much worse. I suspect that we will be seeing more and more of this author in the coming years.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks ( )

This was an average, mediocre read - after zipping through Nancy Martin's "Blackbird Sisters" series (which was awesome) this was a disappointment, but maybe the "high" of the other books affected my feelings on this first book in the Hannah Swenson series. I'm going to try the others - I'm hopeful that as the author becomes more experienced and tightens up the plots a bit, they will get better. ( )